82 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH. 



us. Afar down in the horizon a gang of deer headed by two bucks 

 was going out of the meadow by some other path on a long lope. 

 I pointed them out with my arm, and a nod from Mike showed 

 me he saw the game and understood my gesture. There go two 

 herons, blue and grey, flapping up from the grass, and turning 

 their heads first on one side and then on the other ; the dog must 

 be in that neighbourhood and have sprung tliem, though we cannot 

 see him for the grass. 



There comes a deer ; he is close by before one can see he is 

 started — a young buck with spike horns. How fast he comes ! 

 once in a while jumping high above the grass to view his pursuer. 

 Mike has disappeared behind the tree against which he was lean- 

 ing. I wonder which path the deer will take. I raise my rifle ; 

 no, he is running for Mike. He comes now fast, and close behind 

 him is yelping the hound! he is within shot of Mike, miming 

 right for his stand. Spang ! rings the rifle ; the deer jumps, 

 staggers, halts, and falls. Well done, old Red Beard! next to 

 shooting game one's-self, the best thing is to see it well shot by 

 some one else. 



Yowler is caught by his master, and sent back on the meadows. 

 Hardly had he gone out of sight before I heard his yelp again, 

 and a great rustle and shaking of some reeds that grew a hundred 

 rods in front of me. There it is ! one, two, three deer — and there 

 goes another — and here comes a third party ! The firing has 

 alarmed them, and they are off with a snort and a whistle, each his 

 own way. One has turned this way ; no, he has gone toward the 

 river. There is another ; he is coming this way, surely ; yes, here 

 he comes, head up, horns back — a noble fellow. " Dear me ! " 

 I ejaculated, " this is like shooting deer in a park." As I crouched 

 low in the narrow pass I was occupying, with a dense thorn 

 thicket on either hand, and the grass growing in front of me suffi- 

 ciently high to conceal me from view, I heard the grass rattle 

 furiously, and out dashed an old boar, seeming in a desperate 

 hurry ; he ran close by me, giving a malicious lunge with his 

 snout at me in passing ; I sprung aside in time to avoid the com- 

 pliment, and gazed after his retreating form with feelings of great 

 indignation. The Spaniards of the coast had turned out some hogs 



