44° 



RfXREATION 



I laid them away in the game bag. • As for 

 the do£, the meadow was his joy, indeed it 

 has always been so; he chases the little 

 marsh sparrows and the field mice; some- 

 times he puts up a small snipe, but when he 

 plays in the marsh he does no hunting, and, 

 by the same token, when he hunts on the 

 marsh he does no playing. The strict path 

 of duty for him when he knows I am in 

 earnest, but when I say play he says play, 

 and there's an end of danger to the birds. 

 Sometimes he catches a mouse and then I 

 am not quite sure which is the more sur- 

 prised, he or the mouse. But of a certainty 

 the mouse has short time for enjoyment. 



By this time we weren't so very far from 

 the beach itself, and so, slipping through the 

 fence and across a corner of the duck club's 

 grounds, we were soon among the sandhills. 

 We didn't poach any on the way through, 

 though twice we heard the call of the little 

 brown snipe and more than twice saw 

 whirling bands of teal as they wandered 

 lazily from pool to pool in search of a night's 

 resting place. Arrived at the rim of the 

 beach, where the sandhills came down 

 almost to the water's edge, we crept up 

 behind the lowest hillock near at hand and 

 peeped over. No trailing at heel for this 

 dog of mine; he is head and shoulders with 

 his master when we creep on our bellies 

 after anything from birds and rabbits to 

 butterflies. So it happened that we came to 

 the tip of the miniature peak side by side. 

 And there, on the very brink of the shallow, 

 white surf of the full tide, stood three willets, 

 industriously engaged in the prime business 

 of their lives — the filling of their stomachs. 



I looked at the dog; the dog looked at 

 me; a word passed from me to him, and he 

 slipped down and out and around until he 

 came upon the three quite suddenly. Up 

 they rose, in three directions, as is the man- 

 ner of all willets with which I have ever had 

 any dealings, but one of them did not get 

 very far. The chilled nines had their way 

 and they overtook him before he had fairly 

 gotten his wings into action and he dropped 

 like a tailless kite, just into the edge of the 

 surf. With the rise*of the birds the dog — 

 my dog — laid himself flat on the sand; with 

 the fall of one of them he was in the water 

 and in a moment more the slender wanderer 

 lay in my hand. 



There may be other birds of the seashore 

 prettier than a well-clothed willet, but I 

 have not seen them — at least they do not 

 clothe themselves in gray. What the Wil- 

 son's snipe is to the higher meadows and 

 the fresh-water swamps, that this bird is to 

 the very borders of the sea. I should like to 

 see them on their breeding ground, should 

 like to see them where they come by 

 thousands to rear their young, rather than in 

 scattered twos and threes to find their food. 

 So far as I know, they never have been 

 found breeding in this State, at least not in 

 the southern end of it, though I am told that 

 they nest frequently on the Atlantic sea- 

 board. Here they mingle with the gulls on 

 the beach, but never in great numbers. The 

 largest band I have ever seen contained only 

 seven of the graceful birds and as many of 

 some smaller snipe which I was unable, 

 owing to distance, to identify. 



The black-necked stilt is also frequently 

 seen here in company with the willet and 

 with the American avocet, though neither 

 of them are of much value as game birds. 

 The stilt flies slowly and poorly, somewhat 

 after the manner of the bitterns and the 

 rails, while the avocet is of such poor flesh 

 that he is not worth the powder and shot to 

 kill him. I have eaten both these birds, 

 under forced draft, as they say of steamers 

 that are short on their coal supply, but I 

 have eschewed them ever since, though on 

 many occasions I could have killed a large 

 bag of each or both. On inland alkali 

 flats, within one or two or three miles of the 

 beach, they are both found in company with 

 curlew, which last are great game for the 

 still-hunter. On these level plains, one has 

 no cover whatever, and it requires the high- 

 est skill to get in range of the large plover 

 with anything less than a rifle. They are 

 great game for a good twenty-two. 



By this time my dog and I agreed 

 that it were best for us to hike the 

 home trail. So we walked up the hard beach 

 into the little town of Playa del Rey, v here 

 he had a bowl of cow's milk from Los 

 Angeles and I a drop of goat's milk from 

 St. Louis. I don't know what he thought 

 about the Los Angeles cow r s, but I am 

 possessed of the opinion that they--do 

 have some scandalous fine goats in St. 

 Louis. 



