92 FRANK SCHLEY's PARTRIDGE AND PHEASANT SHOOTING. 



HUNTING PAETRIDGES. 



^Ijjir^ HEN hunting Partridges always try and find your 

 l||(ii*fcj birds early in the morning. The birds are not apt 

 '^^^^ to fly as far as when the day is farther advanced, and 

 ^ you will be fresh and not fatigued, and you will be 

 able to kill more than if tired and worried, as you would be 

 late in the day after a long tramp. Always hunt your 

 grounds very closely, search them well, and do not be 

 in too much of a hurry to get over the ground. This is 

 a great mistake with many sportsmen. They run over 

 the ground too fast entirely. They do not hunt slow 

 enough, and they do not give the dog sufficient time to find 

 the birds. Partridges sometimes are huddled together, an,d 

 they lay very close, and they give out in this m^ ay but little 

 scent, and unless the dog runs close to them he will not find 

 them, and to walk hurriedlj^ over the ground does not give 

 the dog sufficient time to search the ground closely. And 

 if the birds are huddled together in long grass, or in some 

 grassy knoll, or hollow, in close cover, giving out but little 

 scent, the dog will not be apt to find them. But by going 

 over the ground slowly, and by giving the dog plenty of 

 time to search the grounds properl}^, the birds will most 

 generally be come upon by the dog, and perhaps be pointed 

 within twelve inches of his nose. A covey of birds some- 

 times, that lie very close in this way, is worth two or three 

 coveys that flushes wild. Whenever you flush up a covey 

 of Pai't ridges, especially when birds are scarce, do not be 

 loo anxious to find another, but stick to them as long as 

 there is a chance left to get one up. "A bird in the hand 

 is worth two in the bush." And in the course of the day's 

 hunt to adhere to this rule will add to your success won- 

 derfully. The better you know the ground, in any particu- 



