st bare branches, then step swiftly behind a tree-trunk, and stay
in ambuscade, keeping a sharp watch on him as he circles round high up
in the air. Very often in a few minutes he will come back in a wide
sweep, and drop scarcely a gun-shot distant in the same watercourse,
when a second shot may be obtained. The little jack snipe, when flushed,
will never fly far, if shot at several times in succession, still
settling fifty or sixty yards farther on, and is easily bagged.

Coming silently as possible round a corner, treading gently on the grass
still white with hoar-frost in the shadow of the bushes, you may chance
to spring a stray woodcock, which bird, if you lose a moment, will put
the hedge between him and you. Artists used to seek for certain feathers
which he carries, one in each wing, thinking to make of them a more
delicate brush than the finest camel's hair.

In the evening I used to hide in the osier-beds on the edge of a great
water-meadow; for now that the marshes are drained, and the black earth
of the fens yields a harvest of yellow corn, the broad level meads which
are irrigated to fertilise them are among the chief inland resorts of
wild fowl. When the bright moon is rising, you walk in among the
tapering osier-wands, the rustling sedges, and dead dry hemlock stems,
and wait behind an aspen tree.

In the thick blackthorn bush a round dark ball indicates the blackbird,
who has puffed out his feathers to shield him from the frost, and who
will sit so close and quiet that you may see the moonlight glitter on
his eye. Presently comes a whistling noise of wings, and a loud 'quack,
quack!' as a string of ducks, their long necks stretched out, pass over
not twenty yards high, slowly slanting downwards to the water. This is
the favourable moment for the gun, because their big bodies are well
defined against the sky, and aim can be taken; but to shoot anything on
the ground at night, even a rabbit, whose white tail as he hops away is
fairly visible, is most difficult.

The baffling shadows and the moonbeams on the barrel, and the faint
reflection from the dew or hoar-frost on the grass, prevent more than a
general direction being given to the gun, even with the tiny piece of
white paper which some affix to the muzzle-sight as a guide. From a punt
with a swivel gun it is different, because the game is swimming and
visible as black dots on the surface, and half a pound of shot is sure
to hit something. But in th