222 UPLAND SHOOTIXG. 



the air above and around me was one fluttering mass of blue 

 and red, and the spiked tails of the birds flitted just out 

 of my reach. Excited? I was simply wild, and those 

 boys rattled me still more with such exclamations as 

 "Down!"' "Down!" "Oh, look at them! right over 

 your head." "There! there!" "Whale it into that 

 bunch. ' ' ' ' Bah ! you never touched a feather. " " Oh, hurry 

 up! you're too slow." Then, when in my haste and excite- 

 ment I poured the shot in first, one would exclaim: 

 "Oh, Gosh! if he hasn't put. in the shot instead of the 

 powder." Confound those boys! It was many years ago 

 that they said those things, and their voices still ring in 

 my ears; but then at night I always forgave them, for 

 we went home in the gloaming together, proud and happy, 

 a nice bunch of birds for each to carry the males tied in 

 one bunch, with their pretty red breasts together, then 

 both sexes mixed, tied, not by strings, but with the longest 

 feathers of their tails, fastened in a knot at the silken 

 ends, while the quill part was thrust through the lower 

 bill. What blessed days those are to recall! the days of 

 our youth. No successes of after life can compare with 

 them; for, in our maturer years, some day we find our- 

 selves in the forest, and the mild, soft breeze of summer 

 winds plays sweetest music through the trembling leaves, 

 the birds sing their melody to our delighted ears, the 

 grass is a deeper green, the violets a purer purple, and 

 the sky a more lucid blue for these scenes of Nature 

 transport us back, we forget our existence as men, and," 

 lifting the veil of years, we see ourselves, children in 

 thought and deed, roaming in the forest, fishing at the 

 stream, or gathering flowers in the meadows. 



The immensity of some of these flocks of pigeons 

 almost surpasses belief, and it is well for those of us who 

 have seen and enjoyed these sights that there are living 

 witnesses to substantiate what we say of them. In going 



