122 ORNITHOLOGICAL RAMBLES. 



towards us in a joyous sort of flight, as if to say 

 " you are welcome, I have been waiting for you 

 a long time, come and begin at once." And truly 

 he was more confiding than ever, following me 

 from one marsh to another, and evidently distin- 

 guishing and appreciating the respective perfor- 

 mances of man and dog. It was not long before 

 he discovered that the capture of a wounded 

 snipe was attended with far less trouble to him 

 than the pursuit of a sound one, and he soon be- 

 came so fastidious in this respect as to allow 

 those birds which were sprung out of shot to 

 depart without giving chase to them, while he 

 looked to me to put such a retainer on some of 

 those which rose near me as should render the 

 completion of the work an easy matter for him. 



When a snipe was killed dead he never med- 

 dled with it, but if it fluttered and fell at a dis- 

 tance he would frequently drop on it as it touched 

 the ground, and begin plucking and devouring it. 

 I made it a rule never to interfere with him on 

 such occasions, unless I wished to keep his 

 talents in reserve for an aerial exhibition, in 

 which case the nimble-footed Pat would run for- 

 ward and bag the snipe as quickly as possible, 

 before the little hawk had fairly commenced his 

 meal ; although when he perceived our intention 

 he would generally succeed in carrying it to some 



