416 GAME-BIRDS. 



more rapidly, but circumspectly, to tlie point of tlie 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 com- 

 panions have wandered half a mile further, and, after drink- 

 ing in a lively little brook, have again taken a short flight. 

 They are now sitting half asleep in the sunshine on a dry, 

 sandy bank, though some are dusting themselves in little hol- 

 lows which they have scratched out, just as Hens do. In the 

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

 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, notwithstanding 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 reappeared. His dog soon ascertains their position and 

 stops again, while the lad advances beyond him. The birds 

 suddenly spring up with a startling whirr, which is immedi- 

 ately followed by the hang, hang, of two gun-barrels, which 

 prove harmless. The old cock and one or tw^o 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 nasty swamp. The others 

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

 companions race over the dry leaves through the scrub oaks, 

 at the rate of a hundred and fifty yards in a minute, so that 

 one must trot to go as fast. The young do the same over the 

 smooth, dry carpet of pine needles. They pass along so rap- 

 idly, and the ground is so free from grass and undergrowth, 

 that no scent is left behind. Two or three birds are in the 

 pines, sitting close to the trunks or along the boughs. Two 

 others have dropped into a bunch of briers, and the rest into 

 bushes near by. Our friend has now passed through the in- 

 tervening copse ; he has reached the swamp, and has hunted 

 over it thoroughly, but without success. His fine-haired 

 pointer has refused to go among the briers. Had he waited 



