DUCK-SHOOTING. 355 



The moment he touched land his vigor returned ; 

 at a motion, he darted out into the meadow of alter- 

 nating broad slanks and high field grass that lay be- 

 fore us, and ere he had traversed fifty yards, as he 

 approached an open spot, hesitated, drew cautiously, 

 and finally paused on a firm point. Stepping to him 

 as fast as the impressible nature of the ground per- 

 mitted, we flushed three birds, rising as they are apt 

 to do one after the other, and killed two. one spring- 

 ing wide and escaping unshot at. 



While going to retrieve the dead birds we flush- 

 ed two more, both of which were bagged, one a 

 long shot, wing-tipped, and not recovered till some 

 time afterwards ; for, ere we reached him, we had 

 sprung a dozen, most of which were duly accounted 

 for. The missed birds, after circling round high in 

 the air, returned to the neighborhood of their origi- 

 nal locality, and pitching down head-foremost, con- 

 cealed themselves among the high grass near enough 

 to lure us to their pursuit. 



The walking was terribly hard ; the clayey mud 

 uncommonly tenacious; the clay was already well 

 advanced, and splendid as was the sport, we resolv- 

 ed, after having pretty well exhausted ourselves and 

 bagged twenty-six birds, that we must hasten back 

 to the rice swamp, or we should lose the evening's 

 shooting. 



We returned to our boats, and stowing the game, 

 pulled with the utmost vigor down the channel of 

 Mud Creek, and in a short time were again hidden 

 among the high reeds, awaiting the ducks. This 



