72 UPLA^S^D SHOOTING. 



What wonder that in all this confusion you hare 

 failed to mark the spot where the first bird went whirling 

 down upon the right, and the other fluttering to earth 

 upon the left! Where you think the first one fell, you 

 find only a bewildering wealth of violets, blue-bells, pojj- 

 pies, and shooting-stars among the brush. Going to 

 where you think you saw the other fall, you find only 

 spangled confusion worse confounded — the green and 

 pink of the alfileria, the scarlet of the cardinal flower, 

 the blue of the phacelia, the gold of the primrose, with 

 a feather or two upon the red bracts of the painted-cup. 

 You will get the dog, you think; but remember that, 

 although tliis is mid- winter, the air is still very dry, 

 tbe direct rays of the sun are quite hot, and without a 

 frequent supply of water your dog' s scent wUl soon lose 

 that keenness that it will need a little later in the day. 

 Better learn to retrieve your owm birds, and keep your 

 dog fresh. For the present, take no double shots. Keep 

 your eye on the place where every bird falls, and go 

 directly to it without taking another shot. With experi- 

 ence, you may play with these birds as you like, but not 

 now. Xo^^^ you might drop a dozen around you in all 

 directions, and neither you nor the dog could find half of 

 them without taking time that you can use to much 

 better advantage. 



You may now go on for 200 or 300 yards, then 

 turn and come back a few yards on one side, then cross 

 your first path, and go forward again on the left of it ; 

 and all the while, singly and in pairs, and in bunches 

 of four or five to a dozen, birds are rising around you, 

 some whizzing straight away, some circling around 

 behind, some crossing in front, some wheeling overhead. 

 Some burst at once into flight; others, before rising, scud 

 a few yards along the ground, making quite as hard a 

 mark to hit as when on the wing. Some spring almost 



