24 WILD FOWL SHOOTING. 
loamy soil, is dissatisfied with the result; repeating 
the operation again and again, until it seems to 
find the desired spot, and sinks its bill the entire 
length to its very eyes. Not content with this, it 
lies flat on its breast with bill hidden from view, and con- 
tentedly remains there, its eyes blinking in the bright 
sun. This was something new to the young boy, he 
had never seen anything of the kind before, neither has 
he since. He kicked a dry stick, frightening the bird. 
Quick as a flash the woodcock sprung from its soft bed 
and started across the pond. ‘Too late! A sharp re- 
port rung out on the still air, and the bird fell dead, 
making a gentle splash in the water, while tiny waves 
retreated from the fallen body. 
The nexth month, August, we see this same lad, for 
he is but a lad, not yet fifteen, among the prairie 
chickens. His companion a youth about the same age, 
with them a pointer “ Jewel,” a dog old in years and 
experience, still untiring and never ceasing in her ef- 
forts to find the birds. She it was that taught those 
boys the most likely place for birds. ‘They follow her 
with confidence, past experience having shown them 
she knows more of the birds than they. She it was 
that had taught them where to seek the birds morning, 
noon and evening. 
In the fall we see this youth among the ducks, taking 
advantage of their morning flight, finding them in their 
midday retreats, shooting them in the evening over de- 
coys, or at some point as they go to their roosting-place 
stealthily seulling them along the banks of sloughs, 
bayous and in the running water. Or, tramping through 
the underbrush, and along the hillsides, after the whirr- 
ing ruffed grouse. 
