OF NEW ENGLAND. 397 



low field, the old cock suddenly squats ; then, with wonderful 

 rapidity and steps nearly eighteen inches long, he runs across 

 this land, the others following. He passes through a dry oak- 

 wood, halts a moment for the stragglers, takes breath, and 

 then flies silently from the crest of the hill across the little 

 valley below. These hurried movements are due to a lad with 

 a gun and an old dog. The latter of these new comers stops 

 suddenly as if paralyzed, and then steps along slowly and 

 stealthily to that part of the stubble-field where the birds left 

 it, stopping from time to time for his master to come up. Puz- 

 zled, he now returns more rapidly, but circumspectly, to the 

 point of the birds' entrance on the field, and there he is again 

 puzzled. His master, after obliging him to go all through the 

 stubble, after tramping himself all over this, as well as the 

 adjoining woods, shoulders his gun and goes off. Meanwhile, 

 our former companions have wandered half a mile further, and, 

 after drinking in a lively little brook, have again taken a short 

 flight. The3^ are now sitting half asleep in the sunshine on a 

 dry, sandy bank, though some are dusting themselves in little 

 hollows which they have scratched out, just as hens do. In the 

 latter part of the afternoon they return, perhaps by very much 

 the same route, and reach the old stubble-field ; but, just when 

 they are in the middle of this, a hawk appears, and the whole 

 covey instantly squat. Should the marauder detect them, not- 

 withstanding the assimilation of their coloring to that of the 

 mould and dead vegetation, one must perish. The danger is 

 soon past, however, and the birds are feeding again ; but they 

 squat a second time, because our friend with the gun has re- 

 appeared. His dog soon ascertains their position and stops 

 again, while the lad advances beyond him. The birds sud- 

 denly spring up with a startling whirr, which is immediately 

 followed by the hang, bang, of two gun-barrels, which prove 

 harmless. The old cock and one or two more go to a patch of 

 scrub-oaks, the old hen and three others to a grove of maples ; 

 no, they have gone into a nast}'^ swamp. The others have 

 flown straight to a pine-grove. The old cock and his compan- 

 ions race over the dry leaves through the scrub oaks, at the 



