238 IN THE GREEN LEAF 



all told had qualms of conscience about the 

 unsportsmanlike proceeding. The shots were 

 taken, but not a feather was knocked out. 

 Duffers, the lot ! some of my readers may 

 very naturally consider us to have been ; but 

 such was not the case, for there is a kind of 

 distorting mirage that is hard to contend 

 against. 



To complete our discomfiture, a trip of ring 

 dotterels flashed over the dyke-wall and settled 

 on the flat. So close did they appear to be 

 that we could make out their feathers, but not 

 one bird stayed behind to the shots. 



Others that we had spoken to on the subject, 

 old veteran shooters, had had at various times 

 similar experiences. There was a reason for 

 it that not one of us could see at that time, 

 although all is clear to us now. We called it 

 then our bad luck, we had got out of bed the 

 wrong leg first, and so forth. 



By the edge of a rough meadow, too rough 

 to turn a donkey into, where only burdocks, 

 docks, thistles, and " torey " grass grow, a 

 young fellow is listening most intently to some 

 bird-note he has never heard before, and his 

 prick-eared, bushy-tailed, fox-coloured dog, not 

 larger than a marsh-hare, hears it also, and his 



