UNUSUAL EXPERIENCES AFIELD 141 



bays opposite me, I never again succeeded in get- 

 ting within working distance of him at a time when 

 I was prepared for work. 



A pitiful and peculiar bird experience occurred 

 in my presence on a lake in Michigan where I was 

 rowing a boat while my brother-in-law, with an 

 artificial minnow, was making a series of particu- 

 larly long and expert casts for bass. As straight 

 as if it had been shot from a gun a swallow darted 

 in front of the flying bait, which struck it squarely 

 and there was nothing to do but to reel in and 

 attempt its release. From the impact of the 

 bait at nearly a hundred feet, being dragged 

 through the water for the length of the cast, and 

 the pain of having most of the hooks deeply 

 imbedded in its body, the bird was dead before 

 it reached the boat I hope. It was so terribly 

 abused and wounded that I made sure that it 

 was beyond suffering before attempting to re- 

 move the hooks. A man might try for an aver- 

 age lifetime to strike a bird on wing at that dis- 

 tance with an artificial bait and not succeed in 

 hitting it. It is scarcely necessary to say that 

 neither of us would have had this accident occur 

 for any consideration if we could have prevented 

 it, as swallows are particularly inoffensive and 

 peculiarly graceful and attractive birds in flight, 

 while their benefit in winnowing the air of count- 

 less gnats, mosquitoes, and almost invisible winged 

 pests is beyond calculation. 



