THE " QUAIL" 65 



fence the sportsman goes, his dog all a-wrig- 

 gle with joy. Toiling to keep up and envying 

 his comrade that extra pair of legs, the man 

 ploughs through the briars and pushes his way 

 through thick-growing alder clumps along the 

 springy gullies, into the birches the same 

 haunts which charm the grouse and strides 

 down the fence line, broad-margined with its 

 s tangle of weeds, rosebriars and blackberry 

 bushes, with scrubby pines and young trees of 

 various sorts growing along its devious way. 

 A gravelly path across the fields lies athwart 

 the pointer's track and as he runs the tell-tale 

 scent suddenly reaches the quivering high-lifted 

 nostrils. He plows the sand with all four feet 

 in the effort to stop, then wheels at right angles 

 and draws on a few steps to halt with tense 

 muscles and glaring eyes. He has them ! The 

 sportsman pauses to admire the scene before 

 the spell is broken, and his heart throbs high 

 with pleasure and pride in the performance of 

 this, his chiefest jewel. Then at his close ap- 

 proach, with the rustle and roar of many striv- 

 ing pinions the air is suddenly filled with fly- 

 ing forms little balls of brown with a haze 

 at each side where are their buzzing wings. 



