216 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE 



ning about so busily beyond the cattle on the 

 green rushy field immediately opposite the end 

 of the bridge ? Golden plovers, but in a per- 

 fectly bare open place, where there is no chance 

 of stalking them. Still something must be at- 

 tempted to secure so acceptable an addition to 

 the bag and the larder ; and after some discus- 

 sion, it is settled that Harry shall creep round 

 under the broken bank of the river, and hide 

 himself just where there is a white gate in the 

 iron fence, while one of the gillies stands on the 

 bridge as a " flanker," and I and the others go 

 round and try to drive them not an easy thing 

 to do, for they generally go where they wish, 

 irrespective of your desires in the matter. How- 

 ever, an unusual, although by no means un- 

 precedented, thing happens on this occasion. 

 Generally these very shy birds are off with a 

 shrill whistle long before you are within a hun- 

 dred yards of them ; but occasionally they have 

 a stupid fit, and it is with surprise that I find 

 myself within fifty and then forty yards before 

 they take flight. Then, just as I am trying to 

 get two or three in line, for no law is given to 

 these migrants, they rise, and I fire one barrel 

 at that moment and another as, with a rapid 

 turn of the wings, altering the shape and posi- 

 tion of the flock, they pass rather wide to the 

 right. Two fall at once, one a runner, and an- 

 other drops a hundred yards off. No very sue- 



