$6 THE HUNTER'S ARCADIA. 



applicable to a grateful country. Alas ! had he but 

 been a wind-bag politician, it would not have been so. 



(The American species (Scolopax Wilsonii), of 

 which I have made immense bags on the prairies 

 of Iowa and Illinois, Audubon says varies from our 

 home bird by having two more feathers in its tail 

 or wings. I once told a large assembly of American 

 sportsmen this, at a dinner they had hospitably given 

 me at the principal restaurant in New York. My 

 enthusiastic hosts when they heard it fairly made the 

 room re-echo with shouts of "Bravo" or " Bully for 

 the American snipe.") 



In this marsh land I flushed a brace of those 

 extremely wary birds, the curlew (Numenius arguatus). 

 The first I killed dead, but the second was only 

 winged, and fell into the water. Hesitating to waste 

 a cartridge, for here they are scarce and consequently 

 valuable, as soon as I had reloaded I went in pursuit 

 of the cripple ; but, to my surprise, for I was not 

 before aware of it, I found that this curlew swims as 

 well as a duck. I thus discovered that I had under- 

 taken a task which was far from easy. Resolved not 

 to be done, more especially as the eyes of my Zulu 

 were upon me, I determined to distinguish myself, 



