94 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING. 



and, quick as thought, sent his arrow twanging through 

 the air. I watched to see how near it would come to 

 the object aimed at, and was surprised to see it strike the 

 bird aud bring it down headlong. I looked sharply at 

 the warrior to note if he displayed any exultation at 

 making such a shot, but I could detect none, as his face 

 was as stolid as a piece of stone. Being desirous of 

 knowing the distance at which such an extraordinary 

 shot was made, I asked the savage to go for his arrow 

 and stand there, and when he announced that he had 

 found it, I walked towards it, and concluded, as near as 

 I could measure by paces, that he had hit a fast-flying 

 bird at a distance of fifty yards. 



This seemed so remarkable to me that I subsequently 

 made inquiries to learn if Indians were, as a rule, so pro- 

 ficient with the bow, and from all I heard I should de- 

 cide that they were not, and that the shot Avas purely 

 accidental. I should fancy this was the case on another 

 ground also, and that was the disinclination of the war- 

 rior to sell the arrow, on account of, as I afterwards 

 learned, its " medicine " power, as he supposed it was 

 unusually fortunate. I gave him the bird he had killed 

 as a souvenir of the occasion, and he took it with as much 

 eagerness as I ever saw an Indian display. When he left 

 ns we resumed work and trudged all day through stubble- 

 fields, along the margins of wooded streams and ravines, 

 and over broken ground, w:here we knew the birds were 

 to be found, and when we returned homeward in tlie 

 evening we found we had killed one hundred sharp-tails, 

 or an average of ten brace to each gun. 



This was by no means an unusually large bag, however, 

 for I heard of instances where it was more than doubled; 

 and a man was pointed out to me who was known to 

 have killed two thousand birds in a few weeks — if I re- 

 member rightly it was six weeks — but then he traversed 

 a moderate section of country in search of them. I have 



