118 WILD FOWL SHOOTING. 
Those two friends stand silently hid behind the pro- 
tecting tree, the hunter debating in his mind, whether 
to step boldly out, plainly in view and rout the birds, 
or attempt, by crawling, to get a sitting shot. He de- 
cides the former, and when he steps out in open sight, 
is seen, and with a grand roar that fills the woods with 
its volume, the birds arise in fright, and in pairs and 
flocks, both great and small, fly away. The dog looks 
askance at his master, questioning the propriety of 
routing such an immense flock without firing a shot ; 
but a reassuring pat on the head, a kind word, dispels 
the doubt from his mind, and he cheerfully and silent- 
ly acquiesces to the judgment of his master. The ducks 
are loath to leave a place like this, and soon begin to 
return—they will not keep out. Coolly the hunter 
knocks them right and left; the dog is in an eestasy of 
delight. Constant exercise has caused the blood to 
rush through his veins; he comes and goes in and out 
the water, his brown coat glistening with glittering 
ice, forming brilliant beads in the sun-light; then he 
marks the course of a wing-tipped drake, as it tries 
hard to follow the flock, and falls one or two hundred 
yards from the shooter. Away he goes along the 
ridges, throygh brush-piles, over frozen sloughs and 
soon returns, the drake in his strong jaws, with its 
good wing beating against his nose, while its long neck 
encircled with its white tie, its glossy dark green 
head teeters and swings up and down in perfect rythm 
with the movement of the dog’s body. 
When a man finds a place like this, he has found a 
mine, which is exhaustless for that day. If he intends 
staying in the neighborhood, he should hunt some 
other place similar to this,—hunt them on alternate 
