THE WATER SPANIEL. 213 



alder brakes, creeps deviously between swampy banks 

 thickset with flags and sword-grass, furnishing the finest 

 and favorite feeding grounds and breeding grounds for all 

 the varieties of inland wild fowl. 



When the young ducks, flappers as they are techni- 

 cally named, about three parts grown, are able to make 

 short nights only, with their legs hanging down so as just 

 to bend the tops of the marsh grass, or to dimple the sur- 

 face of the water, immense sport may be had in proper 

 localities, which occur every where abundantly from the 

 western parts of the State of New York, through all the 

 Western States to the head- waters of the Mississippi, and 

 the northern extremities of Lake Superior. 



Nor are the Southern States, with their unfrozen 

 springheads, tepid streams and vast verdurous lagoons, in 

 this respect inferior. What could be done in the Ever- 

 glades of Florida by a large party of good sportsmen, not 

 afraid of roughing it, and duly supplied with a proper 

 force of water-spaniels, both in the killing of game and 

 the discovering of new species, is yet to be proved. 



Should snipe or woodcock be found lying in the same 

 localities, as is often the case, they will not escape the 

 infallible nose and unwearied activity of the water-spaniel, 

 nor will his long yellow legs and broadly flapping vans 

 secure the hermit heron, nor his clanking cry of defiance 

 or his sharp-pointed bill, fiercely and fearlessly plied, save 

 the brown bittern from the mortal shot-shower. 



In beating such a stream as I have described, the 

 shooter should walk some ten or fifteen paces wide of the 

 margin, not following its sinuosity, but proceeding in a 



