CHAPTER II 



HUNTING GAME BIRDS WITH THE CAMERA 



iU Inland Game Birds) 



ALL the fall the gunners were at it. The weather 

 /-% was mostly fine, and the guns seemed to be 

 barking in all directions nearly every day. 

 Birds were plenty, tempting some hunters to kill more 

 than the law allowed, and the game warden caught 

 some of them red-handed. It certainly seemed as if 

 there would be no birds left by the time that the law 

 w^ent on again, the first of December. 



So I was pleased enough, during my winter rambles, 

 to flush good numbers of the Ruffed Grouse on the 

 woody hillsides and in the swampy woods, and, when 

 the first mild days of early March arrived, to find that 

 there had returned to their old haunts in the alder 

 swamps quite a number of the Woodcock, generally 

 recognized as the king of the game birds. With the 

 coming of freezing weather the Woodcock had left us 

 for a milder climate, where things were made warm for 

 them by gunners all winter long. It was a wonder 

 that any of them had lived to come back. 



Game birds are ranked by sportsmen not so much 

 by their size as by the degree in which they "lie to the 



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