A Sportsman at Large 257 



was repeated thrice over. Each time the two birds were 

 brought in closer proximity to one another. 



At last he had them practically together. I wondered 

 what he would do next, for I had purposely avoided lending 

 a hand. The dog being now fairly baked, took the snipe in 

 his mouth, and placed one ponderous paw upon the neck of the 

 unfortunate canard ; thus pinning it to the ground. Having 

 done so he looked back at me with pleading eyes, as who 

 should say : 



" Now then, master, I have done my best. I can do no 

 more ; for goodness' sake come and relieve me of these 

 blighters ! " 



It is said that we are all mad that the sanest and cleverest 

 of us have a bee in the bonnet, which at times will buzz 

 consumedly. 



I suppose that I am not entirely immune from this infliction ; 

 but I hold that, like Hamlet, I am " mad but nor'-nor'- 

 west," for assuredly " when the wind is southerly I know 

 a hawk from a herne ! " Only once have I been accused 

 of being a stark, staring lunatic, and that by my old freind 

 Henry George. 



It happened this way : 



One fine day I took him over from Pomona to the neigh- 

 bouring island of Burry, where, so I had been informed, golden 

 plover which are succulent and desirable birds were wont 

 to congregate. With us came the hoo-doo terrier, Billy of 

 infamous notoriety for the reason that (supposing the golden 

 birds were not to be found) there was a large colony of 

 rabbits which inhabited the sand-dunes, and these I proposed 

 to " pink " with my rook-rifle, using the said Billy for the 

 purpose of digging out any of the coneys which, after being im- 

 perfectly shot, might drag themselves into their sandy burrows. 



Soon after landing, I found that the information which I 

 had received about the plover was accurate, for several good 

 flocks were to be seen on the move. 



The higher plateau of the island was of considerable extent. 

 Having descried a bunch of about fifty plover in the middle 

 thereof, I began to put in force tactics which, from experience, 

 I had found to be most effective. 



