24 WILD FOWL SHOOTING. 



loamy soil, is dissatisfied with the result; repeating 

 the oxjeration again and again, until it seems to 

 find the desired spot, and sinks its bill the entire 

 length to its very eyes. Not content with tliis, it 

 lies flat on its breast with bill hidden from view, and con- 

 tentedly remains there, its eyes blinking in the bright 

 stin. This was something new to the young boy, he 

 had never seen anything of the kind before, neither has 

 he since. He kicked a dry stick, frightening the bird. 

 Quick as a flash the woodcock sprung from its soft bed 

 and started across the pond. Too late ! A sharp re- 

 port rung out on the still air, and the bird fell dead, 

 making a gentle splash in the water, while tiny waves 

 retreated from the fallen body. 



The nexth month, August, we see this same lad, for 

 he is but a lad, not yet fifteen, among the prairie 

 ' chickens. His companion a youth about the same age, 

 with them a pointer " Jewel," a dog old in years and 

 experience, still untiring and never ceasing in her ef- 

 forts to find the birds. She it was that taught those 

 boys the most likely place for birds. They follow her 

 with confidence, past experience having shown them 

 she knows more of the birds than they. She it was 

 that had taught them where to seek the birds morning, 

 noon and evening. 



In the fall we see this youth among the ducks, taking 

 advantage of their morning flight, finding them in their 

 midday retreats, shooting them in the evening over de- 

 coys, or at some point as they go to their roosting-place 

 stealthily sculling them along the banks of sloughs, 

 bayous and in the running water. Or, tramping through 

 the underbrush, and along the hillsides, after the whirr- 

 ing ruffed grouse. 



