300 A YEAR OF SPORT AND NATURAL HISTORY. 



till, as you turn a corner, you come suddenly on a doe and her 



two well-grown, large-eyed fawns. A moment they stand and 



stare at you, then bound into the covert, showing the white 



patch on their quarters as they go, and luckily in the direction 



opposite to that which you are taking. For half-a-minute you 



catch a faint sound of their progress, and then all is still. Now 



you breathe freely ; ten to one they will not alarm the buck, 



but the incident has made you cautious. At length you near 



the spot where you expect to find your game ; the wind, what 



there is of it, is blowing in your face, and the boundary fence is 



only some twenty yards in front. Lie down now, and worm your 



way like a snake through the tangled heather, and underneath 



the young fir-trees, creep on silently and carefully, and when 



the fence is reached, peer cautiously through the straggling gorse- 



bush that surmounts the dyke. 



Ah ! there is the buck, right out in the open, for most of the crop 

 round the outer edge of the field has been beaten flat by wind and 

 rain. Ever and anon he raises his head suspiciously. But he is a 

 good hundred and fifty yards distant, and stern on. It will not do 

 to risk a shot ; he has too good a head for that, and a stern shot 

 is not sportsmanlike. Further on, and to his and your right, the 

 fir-trees grow higher. A deep ditch, too, runs under the dyke, and 

 on the covert side ; so you creep back, make a wide dHour, run up 

 one path and down another, and finally reach the ditch, up which 

 you creep, crouching till you get to a patch of tall heather growing 

 on the bank. Now, look ! A glow of satisfaction pervades you as 

 you have ocular proof that your tactics have been successful, your 

 judgment correct ; for there, only some fifty yards away, is the roe- 

 buck, still feeding, and with no suspicion of your presence. It 



