204 FEATHERED GAME 
often coming within ten feet of me and all the 
time conversing in its own tongue with soft, 
twittering notes. What a graceful creature it 
was, and how daintily it stepped! This was 
just before the haying season. In two weeks’ 
time I went again to the same place and could 
not get within a hundred yards of any bird. 
It takes but little to teach them caution. Soon 
they will fly at the first sight of man; and no 
wonder, for once the hay is gathered in, all is 
ready to hunt and harry them from their favor- 
ite fields. The farmers’ boys have usually had 
about two weeks of fun with the Uplands when 
the shooting season commences here (Maine), 
on August first, and as they are the first game 
birds to come into season they are greatly ap- 
preciated and eagerly hunted the instant the 
law is off. During this month they are found 
in the lately-mown hayfields, where hunting Up- 
lands in the glare of August’s sun with never a 
tree for shelter is rather warm work. Early in 
the morning, some time before daylight, they 
may be heard as they wheel about in the black- 
ness overhead, all the time sending down their 
gurgling call. Long before the first streak of 
light has shot across the sky they are busily en- 
