THE CYCLE OF THE SEASONS 29 



woodcock, or a few brace of snipe from the intervale levels. The 

 common little brown hare has more than once crossed his path, but, 

 in order not to spoil his well-broken dogs .for ' feathers/ he has 

 refrained from loosing at the little vanishing lumps of brown fur. 

 He has perhaps discovered a spot where a flock of ' blue-wing ' 

 duck are in the habit of spending their evenings, by signs of 

 down-trodden aquatic plants, muddy appearance of the water, 

 and a few floating downy feathers. As he lies in ambush for his 

 expected shot, he hears once more the clangorous metallic notes of a 

 flock of travelling geese, and looking up sees a long undulating 

 straggling aerial line, stretching away for many a rood against the 

 evening sky, bent on their prodigious journey from the far north to 

 the sunny savannahs which border the Gulf of Mexico. The season 

 has come its full cycle. 



