OUTDOORS 



their vicinity they will rise singly or in pairs. 

 This gives a man an opportunity to pick his 

 birds which no other shooting gives, for in 

 woodcock shooting the cover hinders the 

 shooting, and in other shooting the birds rise 

 often in a bunch, thus distracting the sports- 

 man's aim. 



Not the least of the charms of this kind of 

 sport is the wonderful exhilaration of the 

 open country. The air comes fresh with the 

 breath and vigor of wide expanses, and the 

 sun beats full and free on waving grass and 

 bending reeds. The brown cat-tails stand 

 rusty and sere under autumnal skies, and the 

 winds dance past to the marsh edges and rip- 

 ple over amber waters to the water's edge 

 again. Marsh-hawks hover above, and some- 

 times a sparrow-hawk flutters for minutes at 

 a time without moving from one space in 

 the air. Sometimes a clumsy yellow bittern 

 scrambles out of the grass with a rush of 

 broad wings, stretching his long neck and 

 looking back as if he expected to be brought 

 down by the hunter before he could get out 

 of danger. 



In the fall .the jack-snipe have less country 

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