A day's sport. 49 



remise those," and we followed them. We reached tlie 

 spot in a quarter of an hour, a little patch of stuhble sur- 

 rounded by high furze, a sporting oasis. Jean, my man, 

 w^as for going at them at once ; but " tenez, Jean, those birds 

 have alighted in the furze near the corn, and will soon be 

 upon it to feed, and then is our time." So I took out my 

 pipe and bided my time au Frangais. In another quarter 

 of an hour we moved again, and getting the wind, the dof^s; 

 quietly entered the stubble. In half a minute Belle- 

 snuffed, drew a moment, and stood steadily; Ponto also 

 catching the scent at another angle and pointing dead. 

 It was a picture for Landseer. I walked up between them' 

 and whirr, whirr, r r ! rose the covey in a hurry, for we- 

 were close upon them. I took the first bird and killed it, 

 but missed with my second barrel, and as the birds went 

 back to their first rise, I was obliged to leave them, hoping 

 to see them again in returning. The furze gave us nothing 

 but scratches and sacres from Jean, but on the other side 

 was a stubble of oats, a generally sure find. " Hey away 

 dogs ! " and I walked in. Nothing appeared, and I was 

 drawing towards the outside of it ; but where was Belle ? 

 We looked and whistled in vain. She was pointing some- 

 where without doubt, but where ? So I returned along the 

 ditch. On turning a corner, there she stood like a statue, 

 some fifty yards off in the ditch bottom, turning her head 

 round cautiously now and then, as much as to say, " Come 

 along, here they are." I reached her, and from the ditch 

 rose a nice covey of eight or ten which had been feeding, 

 and had probably retired there on seeing me enter the 

 field. Bang ! bang ! and one fell, another going off 



D 



