Gamhel's Partridge 401 



triumph — 9t least enough to insure to-morrow's 

 breakfast. 



A little nearer the river is a patch of arrow- 

 weed in which the game will surely lie well. 

 This is about as dense as Indian corn sown for 

 fodder, seven or eight feet high, a mass of brown 

 stems and green leaves with the top almost a level 

 floor of green. It is little trouble to scatter a 

 flock in this. And it is so easy to walk around 

 the edges, it will surely be easy to force the birds 

 into flight ; for the patch is not very wide and you 

 can walk into it if necessary to start the game. 

 Exactly. The birds do rise from it at just about 

 the time and places you expect. But they have a 

 marvellous intuition about the relative heights of 

 arrowweed and the human figure, and lose no 

 time in the application of their wisdom. Bbbbbbbb, 

 goes a bird from near the edge, and through the 

 dim haze made by the leaves at the top of the 

 cover you catch sight of a curve of blue just as it 

 starts away on a straight line over the top of the 

 arrowweed. And this straight line happens to be 

 level with the top of the cover, and only five 

 inches above it. Which means that in about 

 five feet from where you first discover it, it is 

 out of sight. And if in desperation you should 

 make a snap shot at its course, the chances are 

 many that you would not touch it, and many 

 more that you would never find it if you did. 



