556 The Water-fowl Family 



to astonish you. If this does not make you feel 

 you are dealing with a game-bird, watch the num- 

 ber of those that, far away, are headed straight for 

 you yet drift away to one side or the other long 

 before reaching your place of hiding. You will 

 find the number too great to be accidental, and if 

 you watch from another point, you will find they 

 are doing little sheering after you are gone. 



It seems absurd to say that any birds could see 

 the sheen of a gun or a few inches of hat and 

 recognize danger in them at so great a distance. 

 Yet you will lose shot after shot if you make the 

 slightest motion in craning your neck or shifting 

 the gun. And you lose many a one, even when 

 you keep perfectly still. The only approach to 

 certainty I ever found was to lie in some cut or 

 break in the ground face downward and with the 

 gun underneath completely covered, without try- 

 ing to look up or squint in any way, lying there 

 in perfect patience till the sound of wings over- 

 head told it was too late for the game to swing 

 aside. Then such a jump as never was, and if I 

 landed on my feet without losing my grip on the 

 gun, there was a chance for a double shot into the 

 wildest medley of laboring wings, long shining 

 beaks, and clamorous throats. 



