Towards three o’clock new flocks of birds were seen through certain trees, at whose aromatic berries they were pecking, those of the juniper-tree among others.  Suddenly a loud trumpet call resounded through the forest.  This strange and sonorous cry was produced by a game bird called grouse in the United States.  They soon saw several couples, whose plumage was rich chestnut-brown mottled with dark brown, and tail of the same color.  Herbert recognized the males by the two wing-like appendages raised on the neck.  Pencroft determined to get hold of at least one of these gallinaceae, which were as large as a fowl, and whose flesh is better than that of a pullet.  But it was difficult, for they would not allow themselves to be approached.  After several fruitless attempts, which resulted in nothing but scaring the grouse, the sailor said to the lad,—­

“Decidedly, since we can’t kill them on the wing, we must try to take them with a line.”

“Like a fish?” cried Herbert, much surprised at the proposal.

“Like a fish,” replied the sailor quite seriously.  Pencroft had found among the grass half a dozen grouse nests, each having three or four eggs.  He took great care not to touch these nests, to which their proprietors would not fail to return.  It was around these that he meant to stretch his lines, not snares, but real fishing-lines.  He took Herbert to some distance from the nests, and there prepared his singular apparatus with all the care which a disciple of Izaak Walton would have used.  Herbert watched the work with great interest, though rather doubting its success.  The lines were made of fine creepers, fastened one to the other, of the length of fifteen or twenty feet.  Thick, strong thorns, the points bent back (which were supplied from a dwarf acacia bush) were fastened to the ends of the creepers, by way of hooks.  Large red worms, which were crawling on the ground, furnished bait.

This done, Pencroft, passing among the grass and concealing himself skillfully, placed the end of his lines armed with hooks near the grouse nests; then he returned, took the other ends and hid with Herbert behind a large tree.  There they both waited patiently; though, it must be said, that Herbert did not reckon much on the success of the inventive Pencroft.

A whole half-hour passed, but then, as the sailor had surmised, several couple of grouse returned to their nests.  They walked along, pecking the ground, and not suspecting in any way the presence of the hunters, who, besides, had taken care to place themselves to leeward of the gallinaceae.

The lad felt at this moment highly interested.  He held his breath, and Pencroft, his eyes staring, his mouth open, his lips advanced, as if about to taste a piece of grouse, scarcely breathed.

Meanwhile, the birds walked about the hooks, without taking any notice of them.  Pencroft then gave little tugs which moved the bait as if the worms had been still alive.