WITHHOLDING SCENT. 83 



vium that is given out by the bird, which enables the dog 

 to find and point them. There are various causes why 

 the very best of dogs at times cannot find and point Par- 

 tridges, even after they have been accurately marked 

 down, and have been seen to settle themselves at a partic- 

 ular spot. 



A Partridge, as a general rule, when it strikes the ground, 

 does not set quietly at the identical spot where it strikes 

 the ground, but at the instant of its fall it walks or runs 

 off a short distance, and hides and secretes itself so that 

 you cannot find it. The distance it runs from the spot, 

 where it strikes the ground and hides, as a general thing 

 is not more than a few feet, but it frequently occurs, that 

 they ran off a long distance from the spot where they 

 alight and hide and entirely escape pursuit. It frequently 

 happens also outside of the general rule that a Partridge, 

 on striking the ground, will set perfectly quiet at the very 

 identical spot where it strikes the ground, and will not stir 

 a peg, nor move a muscle, and on doing so, in high thick- 

 matted grass, it often occurs there is no scent by which 

 the dog can find it, except at the very identical spot it 

 strikes the ground ; and the dog is not likely to find it, be- 

 cause the scent is not dispersed sufiiciently around the spot 

 for the dog to detect it. Not that the bird is withholding 

 its scent from the dog, and thus preventing the dog from 

 finding it, but because the scent is confined, and covered 

 up at a particular spot, and does not rise and diffuse itself 

 around sutficiently to enable the dog to detect it. I have 

 often observed on getting these birds up again, that when 

 they would fly off, and settle in open cover, and at the mo- 

 ment of their fall would walk or run a few feet or so, and 

 then hide, that immediately on coming up to the spot the 

 dog would come down, and point them most beautifully. 

 I have often observed on the snow, that when a Partridge 

 alights, and runs a few feet or so, and hides under the 

 snow, the dog is not apt to miss it, but if it pitches straight 

 down like a stone into the snow, and remains perfectly 

 quiet at the spot where it strikes, and is covered up by 



