268 
FRANK FORESTER’S FIELD SPORTS. 
“No. I could not, with certainty. But I think they dropped 
in that bog-meadow, near yon pine tree.” 
“ No, Agilis, you did not cast your eye forward sufficiently 
in watching them, as they skimmed low over the ground before 
the wind. They went four hundred yards farther, and are down 
in that thicket, with the willows at this end.” 
“ Aye! you have a keen eye, Peritus. Well, let us follow 
them at once.” 
“ Practice is more than keenness of sight, in marking. But 
we will by no means follow them at once. We must find seve¬ 
ral other bevies, and drive them, if possible, the same way ” 
“ Must we,—that seems strange.” 
“ Yes. I will tell you about it at luncheon time ; but now 
come on. The dogs are roading another bevy. Look forward 
beyond the crag there, by the cedars.” 
But Peritus was in error; it was not another bevy, but a 
Ruffed Grouse, which rose a moment afterward with a loud 
whirring, out of a brake, and was cut down handsomely by the 
older sportsman, after being missed by Agilis; who, fluttered by 
the noise, shot a little too quickly at him. 
Five minutes afterward the black Setter stood suddenly and 
dead, in a dry maize-stubble, before Agilis, and a moment later 
Sancho drew, and came to a doubtful point in an opposite direc¬ 
tion, without seeing his companion. 
“ Look alive, Agilis; that is either a Cock or a Hare before 
you, and Sancho is upon a running bevy.” 
It was, sure enough, a Hare ; which bounced up instantly out 
of its form, among some long grass and weeds in the maize- 
stubble, and was tumbled over before it had run many yards, 
by Agilis. At the report the bevy of Quail rose wild, and at a 
long distance; which did not, however, hinder Peritus from drop¬ 
ping one, killed clean at fifty yards, or upward. 
“ A long shot, and a good one !” said Agilis. 
“ It was an Eley’s cartridge. Loose shot would scarce have 
stopped him. Those birds have gone into the saplings on the 
hill-side, and they, I doubt not, are full of Woodcock. We are 
sure of sport now.” 
