[Illustration: "What larks! Killed four-and-twenty blackbirds all in a
row! at one shot!!!"]
Went out shooting before dinner. Killed one wild turkey, after an
awful struggle, in which I very nearly got the worst of it; but
fortunately the turkey was unarmed, though for all that he used his
drumsticks in such a manner as in a little more would have brought
flocks of other furious wild turkeys on to the scene, had I not, with
great presence of mind and one small bullet out of my spring-pea rifle
managed to crack the parchment-like skin which covers his drum, and
at the same time broken one of his sticks. Then, he fell. Carried him
home on my back. What larks! Killed four-and-twenty blackbirds at
one shot as they were all sitting in a row on a rail. They were so
frightened of me, _it made 'em quail!!_ Wonderful transformation,
wasn't it? But fact, all the same. Four-and-twenty quail All on
a rail. Killed eighty "Koran," a Mahomedan bird, very scarce, and
therefore bring in a considerable Mahomet, or, (ahem) profit? See?
Shot a "Tittup"--so called on account of its peculiar action after
drinking; also three early German Beerbirds, or, as the Dutchmen call
them, "Spring-boks." There is another origin for this name, which is
also likely, and that is that they don't appear when there's an early
spring, but when the spring is rather backward then they come forward.
Whichever you like, my little dear, you pays your money, &c., &c.
After all these exciting adventures--"The game is cook'd, and now
we'll go to dinner!"--quotation from early Dramatist, by Yours ever,
[Illustration]
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