324 AMERICAN SNIPES. 



that night. On this I asked him if he had any coon- 

 skins, and he replied, " Any number," so I told him to 

 bring me the best he had, and I would buy one or two. 

 The lad went away, but of course, from the independent 

 method in which he had been " raised " as to the truth, 

 he had no skins ; but we got some corn and very nice 

 milk and butter. 



Taking my shot-gun and Brutus, I then strolled up 

 the creek, and bagged a brace of quails or partridges, 

 and the common English buzzard-hawk. The little 

 stream in the creek was full of chub, as they appeared to 

 me, of from one to two inches long ; but further than a 

 few quail and quantities of woodpeckers and hawks, there 

 was nothing else to induce any sportsman, however keen, 

 on an intensely hot afternoon, to wade through the 

 tangled covert. 



On the 23rd we left our ground a little before nine 

 in the morning, Mr Canterall uselessly ill again, as well 

 as one of my other men, with ague and fever, and George 

 Bromfield also was not so well. On the march I killed 

 four birds which my men called ' ' snipes." All " waders" 

 with long bills, of whatever description, are so called by 

 the generality of Americans ; but the birds really were a 

 species of the redshank, only larger ; the legs of the 

 birds were yellow, those of the two old ones darker than 

 the others, which were evidently their offspring; the 

 plumage of all a mottled grey. At three in the afternoon 

 we -reached Hickory Point, where we thought of encamp 

 ing about a mile from a cabin and a corn-field. It being 

 early, before pitching our camp I sent Mr Canterall on 

 to the cabin to inquire where the best grass was, and if 

 we could have any corn. Having obeyed his orders 

 while I looked at him, on leaving the cabin-door he 



