r a moment caught sight of, and in the
next lost in the dusky green of the vegetation. Every now and then a
small party of them rise up, and after winging their way two or three
times round the lagoon, at the same time giving a series of their quack,
quack, which are loudly responded to from the recesses of the reeds, they
again settle down in another part of it.

This circumstance and a few other signs induce a sportsman to suspect
that there is some mischief afloat, and his doubts are soon set at rest:
upon some bough of a tree, which stretches far out over the water and
thus affords its occupant a view of all that is passing in the lake
below, he sees extended the form of an aged native, his white locks
fluttering in the breeze; he is too old to take a part in the sport that
is going on, but watches every movement with the most intense interest,
and by well-known signs directs the movements of the hunters, who may now
be seen creeping noiselessly through the water, and at times they appear
so black and still that even a practised huntsman doubts for a moment
whether it is a man or the stump of a tree which he looks on. The natives
are sometimes very successful in this kind of hunting: I have known a
single man spear or noose ten wild-fowl, of different sorts, in an hour
and a half or two hours' time.

One very dexterous feat which the natives perform is to kill a bird as it
flies from the nest. This is executed by two men, one of whom, placing
himself under the nest, throws a spear through its centre, so as to hit
the bird in the breast, which, frightened and slightly wounded, flies
out, and is then struck to the ground by the dow-uk, which the other
native hurls at it as it quits the tree. They are such good shots with
these short, heavy sticks that pigeons, quails, and even the smallest
birds, are usually knocked over with them; and I have often seen them
kill a pigeon with a spear, at the distance of about thirty paces.

MODES OF COOKING BIRDS.

Birds are generally cooked by plucking them and throwing them on the
fire, certain portions of the entrails being considered a great delicacy:
but when they wish to dress a bird very nicely they first of all draw it
and cook the entrails separately; a triangle is then formed round the
bird by three red-hot pieces of stick, against which ashes are placed.
Hot coals are also stuffed into the inside of the bird, and it is thus
rapidly cooked and left full of gravy. Wild-fo