BOB WHITE. 29 
birds huddled closely together in the position in which 
the impenetrable drift had imprisoned them. 
This species is credited by some with the power of 
voluntarily withholding the natural scent of the body 
on alighting, after having been flushed. Certainly in- 
stances are numerous, when the best dogs have been 
brought to a place where the birds were seen to settle, 
and although the ground was thoroughly covered in 
every direction, nothing was found. And yet after a little 
while, if that same ground was beaten over, the dogs 
would come to a point at every few moments and the 
birds would flush, usually singly. Again it is not 
unusual that when a bevy is followed immediately, when 
the ground on which they settled was favorable, the birds 
have been flushed without difficulty. If the scent was 
voluntarily withheld it is natural to suppose that there 
would be no exception to the rule, and that it would 
never be permitted to indicate the bird’s presence after 
it had been flushed and thoroughly alarmed. But the 
instances when this is not the case are very numerous, 
and have been experienced by every sportsman, and they 
would seem to prove that the bird has not the power 
to withhold this evidence of its presence at will. When 
a bevy alights after having been flushed there are no 
tell-tale footsteps to give notice to the keen nostrils of 
the dog that any quail is near. Each bird, as it alights, 
remains motionless in a compact mass, every feather 
pressing close to the body, and occupying the smallest 
space possible. Unless it is almost stepped upon by the 
dog its presence would not likely be detected, for the 
bird would not move unless trodden on, and naturally 
there would be little or no scent from its body to betray 
its position. But the instant a movement was made then 
the tell-tale effluvia would escape, and the bird’s locality 
