GEOUSE. 129 



close crouched, was a covey of red grouse, totally unconscious 

 of my presence, but entirely absorbed in watching the move- 

 ments of my companion a hundred paces off, who in his turn 

 had both eyes fixed on the ducks, from whose sight he was 

 well sheltered by a fallen rock. Such cases must often occur 

 in the field. Every sportsman probably passes over much 

 game that is well aware of his presence, though he may be 

 totally ignorant of theirs ; but it is not often that a third 

 person gets a chance of witnessing unobserved the process. 

 Needless to say, I was seen almost instantly, and the whole 

 covey rose on the wing like one bird at the alarm cry of the 

 old cock. The ducks also heard the cry, and, knowing by 

 that curious freemasonry which exists amongst birds that 

 it meant more than an ordinary summons to seek new feeding 

 grounds, the "flappers" melted from sight into the sedges 

 like shadows, while the widgeon and teal flew up, and, 

 taking a wide circle, came directly over us with " loud 



whispering wings." J had already fired both barrels at 



the grouse, which he declared had gone by like a whirlwind 

 not more than a dozen yards overhead, and had brought down 

 (tell it not in Gath) three birds. So the widgeon were left 

 to me, my first shot being an unexplainable miss, though 

 the next one mended matters by stopping the hindermost 

 of the flight just as he was passing out of reach. By the 

 time we had reloaded, the teal, according to custom, came 

 round again in a wide circle over the bog, and three of their 

 number fell as they passed over us ; but the mallards and 

 other ducks had gone straight away down the valley. 



Then we went down to the pond, where, after a brief bit 

 of paddling, the dog came upon the brood of flappers, and 

 put them up beautifully two at a time, and we got six out 

 of eight with seven shots. By this time the sun was well 

 up, and we were very conscious of the lightness of the early 

 morning meal we had taken; so, distributing the game, we 

 took a u bee-line " for the encampment, and twenty minutes 

 afterwards we came in sight of the camp fire and a fine 



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