106 AMERICAN GAME. 



On the second occasion, I was shooting on the Chat- 

 ham meadows, in company with Mr. Mcholls, late of 

 II. M. 82d Keg't. The birds were wild, the day windy, 

 and the ground too wet for birds to lie well. At last we 

 marked three down together in a small meadow, bor- 

 dered by a very broad fen ditch of eighteen or twenty 

 feet, and half that depth with clean cut banks, nearly 

 perpendicular. There was nearly no covert on the 

 meadow. 



Our setters drew up carefully stood perfectly dead 

 when we saw them drop, looked wildly about for a mo- 

 ment, much puzzled at seeing nothing rise, then drew 

 011 slowly and foot by foot, to the edge of the broad 

 dyke, where they again stood steadily. When we 

 reached the bank, the three birds rose, out of shot, in 

 the bare marsh beyond. In all they had run about three 

 hundred yards, besides swimming the brook. Previous 

 to seeing that, I should have fancied the birds had 

 taken wing, and beaten no further than to the water- 

 course. Now I should certainly cross it, and try, before 

 abandoning the game, whether the dogs could not make 

 them out on the farther bank. 



To this, I annex an account of a veritable day's sport, 

 which occurred precisely as it is here set down, to the 

 smallest incident, to the author, while shooting over a 

 superb brace of setters, purchased of that well known 

 sportsman, " Dinks" of Amherstburgh, in company with 

 a crack shot and boon companion, now departed. 



