4 6 
SHY BIRDS. 
Leaving the wagon as soon as they came 
within its neighborhood, she stole carefully be- 
tween two knolls until within a couple of hun- 
dred yards of the water. 
The pond was a naked one ; that is, a little 
sheet of water held in a depression of a treeless, 
rockless plain, with no vegetation upon its border 
except short grass. 
Plover, avocet and other waders frequented it; 
but the difficulty was to get within range of them 
unobserved. They are very shy, having learned 
that man is the most dreadful of all their enemies. 
Their long, stilt-like legs and swift wings— such 
good security against four-footed foes — are of 
little avail where man is concerned ; so, if he 
would approach them, he must lay aside his 
superior dignity and put himself at least on a 
level with the beasts of the field. 
There was not an object — not even a clump 
of grass — to shield her from view ; so, gun in 
hand, she cautiously crept toward the water upon 
her hands and knees. 
Tall avocets were standing in the shallows, 
occasionally thrusting their long, recurved bills 
into the mud for worms and tiny muscles, or 
flying up to try their success in other spots. A 
few plover and an occasional snipe were running 
or flying about on the slimy soil left by the 
gradual evaporation of the water. Whenever 
