ave seen here so far--any we have
seen has been red or yellow with mud. Then we came to woods of all
sorts of palms, mostly low growing on white sand, and here and
there pools and marshes over which the palms stood and were
reflected and threw sharp shadows across the blue reflection from
the sky. Fancy shooting common snipe in such a botanical garden!
The last I shot were with S. in Ayrshire in cold, and wind and wet
and a grey light on high moorland, about the 1st of last October.

[Illustration]

"We spread out, R. and I and his merry men, and waded; his butler
and cook apparently as keen about shikar as cooking, and promptly
three snipe got up, jolly slow flyers, in front of me, and I let
off and hit one of the palm tree trunks and the snipe disappeared
in the gloom of their shade. I saw R. on my right out in the full
blaze of the sun get one of the three, then wisp after wisp got up
and we began to bag them and to fear our cartridges would run out.
But imagine the difficulty of hitting even those slow waterfowl
with an eagle or vulture or a group of them, huge fellows, looking
at you from fifteen to twenty yards off from the top of a low palm,
or a kingfisher of vivid cerulean quivering in front of your nose,
so fixed in its poise and so dazzling in colour that you saw a pink
spot for minutes after, and so got in to your waist. And there were
many kinds of doves and pigeons, which almost fanned our faces as
they swooped past, and hanging weaver birds' nests, that I tried
not to look at, and a roller bird I'd defy anyone not to look
at--the size of a jay, irridescent pale blue and green all over,
with just a touch of brown to set off the blues. I'd fain have shot
one but for the bother of skinning and curing. You can imagine how
distracting at first was this free run in a natural aviary and
botanical garden combined, and how difficult to concentrate on the
'commoner' garden snipe.

[Illustration]

"Very soon each of the men had a bundle of snipe and we had to
return; but we had not many cartridges left, which consoled us. We
went back pretty wet all over, for it was piping hot and airless
under the palms, but on the fields outside the air was delicious
and dry. We crossed the line to a beautiful lake with level grassy
banks and fo