266 FRANK FORESTER S FIELD SPORTS. 



" Aye! indeed, but let us on. My cigar is finished. Hush! 

 hush ! What are those 1" 



" Wood-duck, by Jupiter! eight of them; and they have drop- 

 ped in the bed of the brook, just under the big white oak tree ; 

 they ai'e after the acorns. Keep the dogs close, good Rusticus ; 

 now, AgiHs, cram down an Ely's cartridge in each barrel and 

 let us steal down upon them. Try to get a sitting shot on the 

 water first, and then give them the second barrel as they rise." 



" Excellent ! excellent, Peritus. I see your words are about 

 to be made good. I have bagged a Mallard already, and you 

 two green-winged Teal — " 



"And a Pin-tail," answered Peritus, " besides Grouse, Quail, 

 Hare and Woodcock. And now we will have four or five 

 Wood-duck ; and there are the Snipe bogs. Off with you, but 

 keep your head down and crawl low ; the Wood-duck is not, 

 however, a tvild Duck." 



Within ten minutes four barrels sent forth their contents, and 

 five Ducks came to bag, and thence the friends went forward 

 to the Snipe ground, where some eighteen or twenty long bills 

 were picked up, fat, large and lazy ; and thence again into the 

 wide deep swampy woodlands, where the yelping of the Span- 

 iels, the flip-flap of the rising Woodcock, the whirr of the startled 

 Quail, and the louder hurtling of the E,uffed Grouse, succeeded 

 rapidly by the loud ringing gunshots, gave note of glorious 

 sport until sundown, when the increasing darkness put a stop 

 to the joyoiis labors of the unwearied sportsmen. The tale of 

 that day's bag, and it was a real day, and a real bag, was as 

 follows : 



Seven Ruffed Grouse, sixty-two Quail, forty Cock, nine- 

 teen Snipe, nine Hares, five Wood-duck, two green-winged 

 Teal, a Mallard, and a Pin-tail, brought to bag by two guns, 

 in about eight hours' shooting — one hundred and sixty-six head 

 of game, of nine different varieties. 



That is the best day's sport I ever saw ; I fear I never shall 

 see such another, certainly I shall not in the same region. 



Nothing in the way of sport can, I think, be better, and such 



