68 GAME-BIRDS AT HOME. 



of cheap powder, but out of the smoke it came 

 with unruffled feather. The amazement of the 

 shooter was equaled only by that of his comrade, 

 who attempted a second later to show him how 

 such things should be done. The purple head of 

 a petalostemon bowed beneath his fire, but the 

 bird mounted the air above it with throbbing 

 wing that seemed all the stronger. Bang went 

 the second barrel of number one, tunneling the 

 smoke as the second barrel of number two 

 poured destruction into the heart of a flourishing 

 caterpillar's nest on a scrub-oak which the in- 

 tended victim had just passed. 



All this in about three seconds. Yet before 

 this short time passed a Kiik-kuk-ktik-kuk-kuk-kuk 

 sounded amid the tempest of flame as two more 

 birds, only a trifle smaller than the first, but with 

 beat of wing quite as heavy, broke cover almost 

 beneath the dogs' noses, followed by two more 

 about the time they were fairly under way. As 

 two guns in the rear of the party rang out, the 

 first two birds that rose together went whirling 

 out of a cloud of feathers; and into the ferns 

 from which they rose the second two sank at the 

 report of two more barrels, while the first one 



