410 GAME-BIRDS. 



If the first nest be destroyed, a second hatching is often 

 entered upon. The young increase rapidly in size, and by 

 the first of Sej^tember are two thirds grown. Until then they 

 remain more or less together in a covey, and, if undisturbed, 

 even do so until the following spring. While young, they 

 suffer severely from exposure to unusual weather, especially 

 to cold and heavy rains, which are very destructive. More- 

 over, a species of wood-tick attacks them in summer, insert- 

 ing its triangular head beneath the skin.* It is said to be 

 especially dangerous when it attaches itself to the bird's 

 head or neck, but, at all events, many birds suffer from it. 

 They are also often infested with lice, and are occasionally 

 troubled by a kind of bot-worm, which resembles a large 

 maggot, and which must be fatal, since it reaches the flesh. 



In the first part of the shooting- season, whether it be Sep- 

 tember or October, tolerable sport may be had with the birds 

 over a gun, if they have not been disturbed pre"saously, and 

 if they are abundant and in passable woods, though in the 

 wilderness or rough forest they can only be shot while sta- 

 tionary, as the woods are usually too thick and encumbered 

 to allow of shooting at them on the wing. In such places, or 

 wherever the birds are not suspicious of man, they often take 

 to a tree, if j^ursued by a yelping cur or spaniel, and, appar- 

 ently in a state of stupid wonder, allow the sportsman to 

 walk up and shoot them. Except in the wilderness, however, 

 it has never been my good fortune to have a covey wait, 

 while, beginning with the lowest on the tree, I might shoot 

 them one by one. This undoubtedly is and can be done, if 

 the birds are wholly unsophisticated, but I caution young- 

 sportsmen against too firm a belief and too high hopes 

 founded on such reports. Even with the very best of dogs, 

 the newest kind of breech-loader, the very acme of skill, and 

 an abundance of birds, it is very rarely the case that a good 

 bag is made. The birds seldom lie well to a dog, but steal 

 away so rapidly on foot, that, if the dog is sIoav and staunch, 



* This tick often destroys practi- the opening of the shooting-season, the 

 cally all the broods of young through- sportsman finds only old birds. — W. B. 

 out wide sections of country, where, at 



