EECOVEEING BIRDS. KILLING WOUNDED BIRDS. 33 



secured many hawks in this way, when the bird would have 

 flown off at the first step of direct approach. Numberless 

 other little arts will come to you as your wood-craft matures. 



§20. Eecoveking birds. It is not always that you secure the 

 birds you kill ; you may not be able to find them, or you may 

 see them lying, perhaps but a few feet off, in a spot practically 

 inaccessible. Under such circumstances a retriever does excel- 

 lent service, as already hinted ; he is equally useful when a 

 bird properly "marked down" is not found there, having flut- 

 tered or run away and hidden elsewhere. The most difficult 

 of all places to find birds is among reeds, the eternal sameness 

 of which makes it almost impossible to rediscover a spot 

 whence the eye has once wandered, while the peculiar growth 

 allows birds to slip far down -out of sight. In rank grass or 

 weeds, when you have walked up with your eye fixed on the 

 spot where the bird seemed to fall, yet failed to discover it, 

 drop your cap or handkerchief for a mark, and hunt around 

 it as a centre, in enlarging circles. In thickets, make a "bee 

 line'' for the spot, if possible keeping your eye on the spray 

 from which the bird fell, and not forgetting where you stood 

 on firing ; you may require to come back to. the spot and take 

 a new departure. You will not seldom see a bird just shot 

 at fly off as if unharmed, when really it will drop dead in a 

 few moments. In all cases therefore when the bird does not 

 drop at the shot, follow it with your eyes as far as you can ; 

 if you see it finally drop, or even fiutter languidly downward, 

 mark it on the principles just mentioned, and go in search. 

 Make every endeavor to secure wounded birds, on the score 

 of humanity ; they should not be left to pine away and die in 

 lingering misery if it can jJossibly be avoided. 



§21.' Killing wounded birds. You will often recover 

 winged birds, as full of life as before the bone was broken ; 

 and others too grievously hurt to fly, yet far from death. Your 

 object is to kill them as quickly and painlessly as possible, 

 without injuring the plumage. This is to be accomplished, 

 iixmJAL. 3 



