A Day with the Rails. 757 



chuckle, with "A chip of the old block," when the boy told him that 

 he had rather kill one bird flying swiftly across than bring fifty to 

 bag out of a flock. 



" Mark ! teal," said the pusher, as he caught sight of three blue- 

 winged teal coming swiftly down the river. 



The youth had just time to charge his gun with a cartridge of 

 No. 4 shot, which he took out of his left-hand pocket, and to bring 

 his gun to bear on the teal as they passed him on the left at about 

 forty yards distant. Bang ! and with quickened wings they passed 

 unscathed. 



"Why, I held directly on that rear bird," said the crest-fallen 

 youth. 



"If," said the pusher, "you had held directly on the leader, you 

 might have killed the bird you fired at. You must hold two yards 

 ahead of those birds flying across at that distance. Now sit down, 

 and I'll take you to the other shore ; but remember, it is there not 

 sheltered from the wind as in this cove, among these hills and high 

 trees, and the birds will fly faster, and it may be that, when the 

 wind catches them, some of them will twist as they go, in a way like 

 snipe." 



And so it happened ; the rail rising wildly and speeding away 

 with astonishing rapidity for a bird generally so sluggish in flight. 

 Here the youth met with many disappointments ; but he was young 

 and ambitious, and it does not take long for an intelligent youth to 

 profit by failures — in the pursuit of pleasure. 



" I've the knack of it now." 



"Good shot!" said the pusher, as the youngster cleanly killed a 

 cross-flying bird at thirty yards. 



" Yes, I held over a foot ahead of him." 



"That's right. Did you see the other bird scud across the 

 river ? Who would have thought that was a rail ? You see how 

 an easterly wind can make them go." 



" I suppose," said the boy, " that's the way they fly when the 

 first frost chills them, and they all leave between sunset and sunrise. 

 Father says they migrate in the fall to great distances, going even 

 beyond the southern borders of our country, to the West Indies, and 

 that they have been known to alight on ships when over a hundred 

 miles distant from the nearest land." 

 48A 



