26 GAME BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA, 
are bidden to go forward. With a bound the fence is 
cleared and, regularly as the working of some faultless 
machine, the noble animals beat the fields on a gallop, 
with heads carried high and nostrils open, crossing each 
other’s tracks at regular intervals. Suddenly one checks 
himself and swings around halfway, and his pace is re- 
duced to a walk, and with careful steps and head carried 
on a line with his body he draws slowly forward, uncer- 
tain as yet where the birds, whose strong scent has dis- 
covered to him their presence, are located. Carefully 
the dog moves on, and his tail, which had been beat- 
ing his sides with rapid strokes, is straightened and 
becomes rigid. His companion, who had overrun the 
scent, not being so near, sees the careful movement, and, 
knowing the cause, turns, and with equal care follows 
the direction of his mate. The first dog has now reached 
the vicinity of the bevy, and what a picture he presents 
to his master’s gaze! With crouching body and tail 
rigid, one foreleg half raised and the paw turned back- 
ward, eyes set in a stony gaze, a frowning brow, and jaws 
half open, with the saliva dropping from his tongue as the 
hot scent wells up into his sensitive nostrils, he seems as if 
carved in stone, while behind him, afraid to move another 
step, in a similar attitude, stands motionless his mate. 
The sportsman moves forward and speaks in low tones 
words of encouragement to his four-footed friends, but 
the dogs stir not, and soon their master is close to the 
leader, when from beneath his very nose, with a whir 
like muffled drums, hurtling and jostling each other in 
their headstrong flight, rises the bevy of full-grown birds. 
At the sound of wings the dogs drop to the ground with 
their heads on the outstretched paws, and the reports 
of the gun ring out, stopping short some swift-flying 
birds that fall inert and lifeless to the earth, while the 
