90 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING. 
more anxious to note the habits of the birds than to bag 
them. On seizing the reins, I followed the gunners very 
slowly, and received their birds from time to time. They 
offered to “spell” me after a while, but as I did not wish 
to spoil their sport, I decided to occupy my exalted position 
until we reached the stream, and then relinquish it to an- 
other. While crawling tediously along, I kept my eyes on 
the ground a good deal, as it was generously covered with 
bunch-grass, amid which glided an occasional snake or 
lizard, whose movements were very interesting to me. I 
fell into such a dull, listless mood after a while that I 
scarcely saw anything except the mere earth, but on 
reaching a small piece of shrubbery, I was roused into 
attention by the gaze of a liquid pair of brown eyes. Not 
being able, at first, to make out what they belonged to, 
T halted, and stared steadily at them for a few moments, 
and then noticed that they were attached to a grayish 
body, which resembled the ground so much that it was 
hard to distinguish them apart. After a little further 
peering, I noticed several more pairs of the same kind of 
eyes, and as they were scarcely twenty feet away, I de- 
cided to try my pocket-revolver on them. Drawing that 
carefully and slowly, for fear of making any movement 
that would disturb the gazers, I fired at a glistening pair 
of eyes, and the report had no sooner rung out than a 
large flock of sharp-tails rose up and fled at their highest 
speed, and with many an alarmed cry of kuk-kuk-kuk, 
to safer quarters. 
I shot at them with my gun when they were fairly on 
the wing, and brought down two. This simple feat gave 
me much pleasure, for I would rather have bagged that 
brace under the circumstances I did than several at 
another time. After picking them up, I went searching 
for the one I had shot at with the revolver, but I could 
not find it. Resuming the reins, I drove slowly, in order 
to keep behind the gunners and receive their victims, 
