RECOVERING 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. RECOVERING 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 flutter 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 possibly 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, 
MANUAL. 3 
