SEC. in SUGGESTIONS AND DIRECTIONS FOR FIELD-WORK 25 



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

 matures. 



Reeovering 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 excellent service, as 

 already hinted ; he is equally useful when a bird properly ' ' marked 

 down " is not found there, having fluttered or run away and hidden 

 elsewhere. The most difficult of all places to find birds is among 

 reeds, the sameness of which makes it almost impossible to redis- 

 cover 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 flutter languidly down- 

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

 Make every endeavour to secure wounded birds, on the score of 

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

 ing misery if it can possibly be avoided. 



Killing Wounded Birds. — ^You will often recover winged birds, 

 as full of life as before the bone was broken ; and others too griev- 

 ously 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, with all small birds, by suffocation. 

 The respiration and circulation of birds is very active, and most of 

 them die in a few moments if the lungs are so compressed that 

 they cannot breathe. Squeeze the bird tightly across the chest, 

 under the wings, thumb on one side, middle finger on the other, 

 forefinger pressed in the hollow at the root of the neck, between 

 the forks of the merrythought. Press firmly, hard enough to fix 

 the chest immovably and compress the lungs, but not to break in 

 the ribs. The bird will make vigorous but ineffectual efforts to 

 breathe, when the muscles will contract spasmodically ; but in a 

 moment more, the system relaxes with a painful shiver, light fades 

 from the eyes, and the lids close. I assure you, it will make you 

 wince the first few times ; you had better hold the poor creature 

 behind you. You can tell by its limp feel and motionlessness when 



