22 GAME-BIRDS AT HOME. 



fine shooting, one on each side of the hedge. 

 Quick work was needed when out from the 

 thorny mass the bird came whizzing in full head- 

 way. Like a flash he was fading amid the tall 

 gray stalks of the corn still standing dense and 

 close to the hedge. Quick as thought had to 

 be your aim if you wanted to see him whirl down 

 amid the yellow pumpkins, for if he once van- 

 ished in that corn he was no more for you that 

 day. 



Nor was it so easy when out on the open 

 prairie-side he came curling, with the sunlight 

 dancing on his mottled breast of black and 

 white, his little blue tail outspread, and the soft 

 rosewood hues of his back in plain sight, wheeled 

 around you perhaps and started down the hedge 

 again. On that gigantic background it was easy 

 to underestimate the speed and distance of the 

 fleeting beauty, and just behind him the tall 

 rosin-weed often bowed its still golden head and 

 sank to earth at the report of your first barrel, 

 while the second scattered some of the lingering 

 sunflowers and brought perhaps a feather from 

 the little blue tail, the loss of which only made 

 its owner seem to vanish more swiftly. 



