106 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES. 



mode of quickening his torpid faculties. Under 

 the spur of its application he sometimes betakes 

 him to the wiles of his cousin, the snipe, turning 

 and twisting on the wing so as to elude the shoot- 

 er's aim darting and flitting low round the trees 

 and bushes, so as to disappoint his most sanguine 

 calculations now springing, with a shrill cry, at 

 his very feet, and now stealing away silently, at 

 his back, until the man grows bewildered in spite 

 of himself, his dog loses heart, and the bird by 

 sheer dint of its ingenuity escapes from them 

 both. It is ludicrous, in this case, to observe the 

 manner in which either manifest their chagrin. 

 The shooter besmirched, perhaps, from top to toe, 

 his face begrimmed with powder and his eyes 

 blinded with sweat, mutters his disappointment 

 in " curses not loud but deep," while Dash, in as 

 sorry a plight, looks wearily up in his vexed 

 face, with a despondent wag of his tail, as if, 

 though loath to admit the fact, he needs must own 

 that that cock was too much for him, too. This 

 is the kind of shooting against which many 

 sportsmen, with some appearance of pique and 

 more of justice, yearly exclaim. Should the 

 weather continue dry, it lasts from early in June 

 until the birds leave the cripples to moult, in the 

 month of August. 



