200 AMEEICAN GAME. 



babblers are couched silent in the soft, succulent young 

 grass. Loaded once more, " Hie ! fetch !" and what a 

 race of emulation 'mouthing their birds gently, yet 

 rapturously, to inhale best the delicate aroma, not biting 

 them, each cocker has brought in his bird, and they and 

 you, gentle reader, if you be the happy sportsman who 

 possesses such a brace of beauties, are rewarded ade- 

 quately and enough. 



For the rest, a short, wide-bored, double-barrel, an 

 ounce of ~No. S shot, and an equal measure of Brough's 

 diamond-grain, will do the business of friend rmcroptern, 

 as effectually, at this season, as a huge, long, old-fashion- 

 ed nine-pounder, with its two ounce charge ; and it will 

 give you this advantage, that it shall weigh less by three 

 pounds, and enable you to dispense with a superfluous 

 weight of shot, which on a hot July day, especially if 

 you be at all inclined to what our friend Willis calls 

 pinguitude, will of a necessity produce much exudation, 

 and some lassitude. 



