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quail, grouse, and even grasshoppers when 

 no bigger game was afoot. At a distance 

 we wou l^ near n j s ca \\^ a peculiar yeow-yow 

 that he gave only when he had caught some- 

 thing, and the boy would run out to meet 

 him and take his game, while Blink purred 

 and rubbed against his legs to show his pride 

 and satisfaction. When no one met him he 

 would go meowing round the house once or 

 twice and then put his game under the door- 

 step, where our noses must speedily call it 

 to our attention, for Blink \vould never touch 

 it again. 



One day the boy found a strange bird un- 

 der the door-step, a beautiful brown creature, 

 as large as a pigeon, with a long, straight bill, 

 and eyes at the top of its head. He took it 

 to his father, a dogmatic man, who gave him 

 a queer mixture of truth and nonsense as his 

 portion of natural history. It was a blind 

 snipe, he said ; and there was 

 some truth in that. 

 It could n't see because 

 its eyes were out of 

 place; it was a very 



