OUTDOORS 



marshes the slue-grass is occasionally cut by 

 some marsh-dweller and piled along the drier 

 reaches of land. And here, especially if cat- 

 tle have tramped it over and wallowed it 

 about without breaking down, but only scat- 

 tering the cover, the jack-snipe are often 

 found in great numbers. They will rise 

 singly and in doubles, some starting up into 

 the air, and some skimming along close to 

 the ground. 



If a pair of them flush, and they are birds 

 that have been hunted much, it is interesting 

 to watch their manoeuvres. They will rise 

 high in the air until they are mere dim specks, 

 and only an experienced and steady eye can 

 follow the irregular pencillings of their flight 

 through the sky. Here and there they will 

 swerve, veer, and tack, passing from one 

 cloud-vista to another. Finally they will be- 

 gin to descend. The speck becomes a dot, 

 the dot grows to a small shadow, the shadow 

 is etched into a bird. And after a few min- 

 utes, if a man remains motionless, they will 

 swing in toward where they were flushed and 

 dart into cover, sometimes within fifty yards 

 of the spot from whence they first rose. 

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