82 GAME-BIRDS AT HOME. 



fallen one had reached the ground. Again two 

 barrels barked almost together, and two big birds 

 went whirling over; for we shot very good guns 

 then, even if they were muzzle-loaders, and fed 

 them all they could stagger under, as no close or 

 easy shots could be expected with these birds so 

 late in the season. Before the two stricken ones 

 had fallen with heavy bump into the grass, 

 twenty or thirty more birds rose with a vast 

 flutter of white feathers and, massing up like a 

 charge of grape, shot away over the prairie on 

 the course taken by the other birds that had 

 risen. Three hundred yards they went ; set 

 their wings and rode swiftly down the breeze, as 

 if to alight ; then suddenly with rapid stroke 

 they rose again, then skimmed low along the 

 horizon, then changed to quick beat of wing 

 that carried them up a little, then with whiffling 

 stroke of wing sped on again until nearly a mile 

 away they sailed with majestic sweep over a low 

 ridge. 



A mile was nothing to walk for another shot 

 at such game, and we soon reached the crest of 

 the ridge over which the birds had disappeared. 

 Spreading away on the other side was a long 



