22 THE BARONY OF 



delicious perfume to the pressure of the feet. 

 The brute works with energy and skill. Mark ! 

 Up springs a woodcock and is stopped by 

 Dwyer as he darts for his life between a silver 

 larch and a rowan ; quick as lightning Billy 

 pounces on the fallen bird, and rends him as 

 the beagles would a fox. Tom Dwyer curses 

 as the army never did in Flanders ; he bellows 

 for Billy to come and be flogged; but Billy 

 regards ; us both from a safe distance, blood 

 and feathers smeared on his maw, and an ex- 

 pression of stolid innocence or indifference on 

 his countenance. The woodcock is reduced to 

 mere pulp and a pair of legs, and the mess pre- 

 sented by what was a wild-fowl again provokes a 

 renewal of strong language from Mr. Dwyer, 

 the glib command of which a Thames barge- 

 man might envy. We get three couple of 

 cock from the wood after driving Billy away, 

 and then Dwyer proposes that we should 

 watch in the "bawn" fields for the golden 

 plover. 



The "bawn" fields are no sooner reached 

 than we hear the low pipe of the birds, which 

 are to be distinguished from big thrushes and 



