Jan. 7, 1911.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
33 
cedars and crossed the creek without showing 
himself. I was soon across with the dog, while 
Jake kept on the other side. Working* into the 
alders, the dog soon made game, and after a 
few moments came to a point. I called to Jake 
to get ready, and went to an open spot from 
where I tried to make the dog put up the bird; 
but the dog would not move. I walked in front 
of the dog, and all around him outside a radius 
of eight or ten feet, but no bird went up. I 
then went nearer, and got so near that I could 
touch the dog with my foot, which I did stand¬ 
ing beside him, and urged him to go on. At 
this the bird sprang up between us with a whirr 
and a whistle. I quickly raised my gun to 
shoot, and at the same instant the dog made a 
spring at the bird (something he was never 
known to do before), but missed him. As I 
saw the dog jump, 1 threw the muzzle of my 
gun up just as I pulled the trigger, to avoid 
shooting him, and of course missed my bird, 
which was flying very low and sailed toward 
Jake, who promptly fired and dropped him into 
the creek. 
I was floundering along about half way' back 
to where we started in, when up went a wood¬ 
cock. I fired, as I always do when I see the 
bird, and again scored a miss. The dog was 
on the other side with Jake. I tried tp get him 
to hunt with me, but he would not stay; so I 
wallowed alone. I had thought the walking 
was bad before, but soon after flushing the bird 
I went to my knees at nearly every step in 
black mud and water, and finally made a spring 
to escape a particularly vicious looking hole, 
and as I landed I could feel my left foot sink¬ 
ing into the mud until it nearly ran over the 
top of my hip boot. I mechanically dropped 
on to my right knee and tried to pull the other 
leg out, but I was stuck. Within reach of me 
was a rotten stump, against which I leaned my 
gun, and off of which I broke pieces to place 
under the knee that was on top. These sup¬ 
ported me if I kept quiet, but when I put any 
pressure on them they broke. I saw a long 
piece of drift wood that looked as if it would 
bear my weight; this I reached after an effort, 
and just as I got a firm hold and began pulling 
it toward me, up went that woodcock from near 
the other end of it. I suppose he had been 
sitting there and chuckling to himself over my 
dilemma. I thought so anyway, and hastily 
reaching for my gun, cut loose on him at long 
range without ruffling a feather. In a moment 
or so after I fired I heard Jake say, “What did 
you shoot at?” and there he was on the other 
side of the creek laughing at me. 
I soon got the long stick under my knee and 
hoisted myself out; then went directly to the 
bridge, which was near, and crossed over to 
Jake. We then worked through some cedars 
up the creek until we struck the alders again. 
The dog went in with a rush down the wind, and 
was not fairly in the brush before he flushed a 
woodcock, which flew low so that we did not 
see him. If there is one at this place there are 
always more. The dog soon pointed where we 
could see him on his point; and as Jake had 
killed all the birds so far, he said he would go 
in and flush the birds, while I was to remain 
on the high ground and do the shooting. He 
went to the dog; then commenced some of the 
finest work by the dog that I have been per¬ 
mitted to see in some time. He would work 
along very carefully for a short distance; then 
stop and cautiously turn his head to see if Jake 
was coming; then move a few steps further; 
stop again and look. I could only account for 
his actions by the thought that possibly there 
had been a large flight of birds there that had 
gone that morning, leaving a very strong scent. 
After going through this performance several 
times, and covering about six rods, he came to 
a point. Jake thought he was over-cautious and 
was stopping again, so he told him to go on. 
This he refused to do, and Jake called out to 
me to get ready, as he guessed there were two 
or more birds straight ahead. I secured a 
good position, and Jake walked a few steps 
ahead of the dog, when up went a bird. He did 
not come my way. but gave Jake a good snap¬ 
shot, and he killed. The dog took a step or so 
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