Reptiles. 2575 



same bog ! I could perceive him, as I topped a hill which commanded an extensive 

 view of the country, scudding along towards us in a joyous sort of flight, as if to say 

 4 you are welcome, I have been waiting for you a long time, come and begin at once.' 

 And truly he was more confiding than ever, following me from one marsh to another, 

 and evidently distinguishing and appreciating the respective performances of man 

 and dog. It was not long before he discovered that the capture of a wounded snipe 

 was attended with far less trouble to him than the pursuit of a sound one, and he 

 soon became so fastidious in this respect as to allow those birds which were sprung 

 out of shot to depart without giving chase to them, while he looked to me to put such 

 a retainer on some of those which rose near me as should render the completion of 

 the work an easy matter for him. 



" When a snipe was killed dead he never meddled with it, but if it fluttered and 

 fell at a distance he would frequently drop on it as it touched the ground, and begin 

 plucking and devouring it. I made it a rule never to interfere with him on such oc- 

 casions, unless I wished to keep his talents in reserve for an aerial exhibition, in 

 which case the nimble-footed Pat wonld run forward and bag the snipe as quickly as 

 possible, before the little hawk had fairly commenced his meal ; although when he 

 perceived our intention he would generally succeed in carrying it to some distance, 

 expostulating all the time, with loud and angry shrieks, at what he evidently consi- 

 dered a breach of our compact. 



" After my third or fourth visit to those bogs the merlin was always there to 

 receive me, and was subsequently joined by a companion, a female, both of them con- 

 tinuing to attend me in all my snipe-shooting expeditions on that side of the country. 

 Sometimes, at the very commencement of the day's sport, I might perhaps be unac- 

 companied by my little friends, but the first report of my gun was generally sufficient 

 to summon one or both of them to my presence, and a wounded snipe, however 

 slightly touched by the shot, had no chance of escape from their united efforts. First 

 one would rise above it in a succession of circular gyrations — for he was unable to 

 ascend in such a direct line as the snipe, — then he would make a swoop, and if he 

 missed, his companion, who in the mean time had been working upwards in a similar 

 manner, would next try her luck, and in this manner they would pursue the quarry, 

 until the persecuted bird, unable to ascend higher or any longer avoid the fatal stroke, 

 was at last clutched by one of the little falcons, while the other would hasten to ' bind 

 to it,' and all three descend together into the bog. After a performance of this sort 

 an hour would occasionally elapse before the return of either of the merlins — some- 

 times more, sometimes less — but they never seemed willing to give up the sport until 

 at least three snipes had fallen to their own share." — page 119. 



British Reptiles.* 



I am much pleased to find that a second edition of Bell's ' History of British Rep- 

 tiles ' has been called for : the book was always a great favourite of mine, although I 

 have sometimes mentally charged the author with too great a love for making genera 



* ' A History of British Reptiles.' By Thomas Bell, Sec. R.S., kc. Second 

 Edition. Van Voorst, Paternoster Row. 



