BOB WHITE. 25 



Drop on one knee as quickly as you will, the 

 buzzing brown often fades into the russet canopy 

 before you can possibly turn the gun upon it. 

 Only the eye of faith can serve you now, and 

 there must be no dust in that. In such cover a 

 double shot is generally impossible, and by the 

 time you have made a few single shots you will 

 say you have found about the hardest shooting 

 on earth. 



In the West the sportsman becomes better 

 acquainted with Bob White out of shooting 

 season than in the East. In the East his sum- 

 mer call of ''Bob White" ringing over the 

 harvest fields and an occasional glimpse of his 

 plump little figure as he sits upon some distant 

 fence is about all you get of him, unless you do 

 as I have often done — hide well in the grass and 

 call him to you by the call of the hen, and see 

 him play around you in astonishment. But in 

 the prairie states he used to be a common sight 

 along the roads, and many a time the little 

 brood rose with a soft whiz from in front of the 

 horses as you drove along. Often when the 

 ferns and grass of the prairie were starred with 

 the soft gold of the lady-slipper, while the mild 



