paraDtse Circle 



like a cat toward my quarry, bending my 

 gaze hard upon the spot where I had seen 

 it hide. You must bear in mind that 

 the sylvan archer is forced to depend upon 

 keenness of vision, stealth, knowledge of 

 bird-habits, and all that sort of thing, to 

 an extent rarely thought of by the sports- 

 man with a gun. I have killed many birds 

 on the wing, birds both large and small, 

 slow-fliers and air-splitters, with my arch- 

 ery tackle ; but of course there is Httle cer- 

 tainty in such shooting. Moreover, the long 

 flight of an arrow delivered at a consider- 

 able elevation is an item to consider; too 

 often it means loss of the missile. Long 

 ago I used to practise on meadow-larks in 

 our Western clover-fields, and I considered 

 myself expert when I could count upon 

 one bird in fifteen shots! Of course, I re- 

 formed presently, and left the beautiful 

 starlings to their singing all unmolested. 



But now the woodcock, which to dis- 

 cover in its hiding-place, and have a shot 

 at while it crouched on the ground, would 

 be a feat far superior to flushing it and 

 shooting it on the wing with a shot-gun. 

 41 



