1 62 GAME-BIRDS AT HOME. 



they reached the top of the hill, a safe distance 

 above him. Not at all discouraged, he went on 

 again, thinking if they passed over the top of 

 the ridge he would have a good chance to get 

 close without their seeing him. So with head 

 down and gun ready, he sneaked up to the crest 

 of the ridge and looked over. From nearly half- 

 way down the other slope came the Whit — whit 

 — ivhit and Wook — ivook — wook again, appar- 

 ently about ten yards farther off than they had 

 yet been. 



Jones suddenly saw several dark little bodies 

 huddled in an open space some forty yards or 

 more — it is generally more — down the hill. A 

 good shot, he had started out with the intention 

 of shooting only at birds on the wing. But the 

 most violent scruples against ^' a pot-shot" on 

 this bird are often removed by less than four 

 hundred feet of climbing and ninety degrees of 

 the thermometer. Therefore I was not sur- 

 prised to see Jones (who had been very free in 

 his denunciation of pot-shooters) fire into this 

 bunch of birds. The result was the roar of 

 hundreds of wings and hundreds of lines of whiz- 

 zing and buzzing blue above the brush on the 



