226 Sporting Sketches 



message of the air has reached that marvellous nose, 

 and the grand brute stands as though carved in 

 marble. There was no reading, no feeling for it, 

 just an instantaneous propping and a breathless 

 halt. " That's funny," mutters the man ; " I'd have 

 sworn ha ! " There is an abrupt rising of a brown, 

 hasty-winged thing which goes darting for a dis- 

 tant cover. At the sight the lazy man suddenly 

 changes. The little gun leaps to the level, and 

 before the butt has fairly touched the shoulder, the 

 quick smokeless has hurled its leaden greeting. 

 The bird goes down, unmistakably clean killed, 

 while the dog slowly sinks to his haunches. As 

 the man reloads, his face fairly shines with joy. 

 " Fifty yards if an inch," he says to himself, " and 

 a bruising old hen at that. Who'd have expected 

 a woodcock this time of year and away out here ? " 

 Then he goes to the dog and clucks him on. 



As the dog has seen the bird fall, he merely 

 makes a few bounds forward and again stiffens 

 within two yards of an unusually large female 

 woodcock one of those choice birds only occa- 

 sionally picked up at the tail-end of the season. 

 " Don't like that, eh ? " laughs the man as he 

 holds the bird near the dog's nose. The grand 

 eyes are bulging with controlled excitement, but 

 the shapely muzzle is wrinkled into an expression 

 highly suggestive of disgust. " Wish I understood 

 that. It's funny, but you don't like a dead cock 

 though you'll stop on 'em fast enough when alive 

 eh, old boy?" chuckles the man. "Here, take 

 it," he says, and the dog obeys. . " Give it to me," 

 continues the man, and the dog promptly drops 



