QUAIL-SHOOTING. 93 



game to be proud of. Again, a bevy may drop upon un- 

 even ground well covered with long grass or small bushes, 

 or along the side of a fence lined with cat-brier or black- 

 berry bushes ; and here you may be unable to raise a sin- 

 gle bird, after going over the ground again and again, be- 

 cause the dog is unable to wind them, except by passing 

 directly over them. Under like circumstances, sit down, 

 or beat another field, and return in fifteen or twenty min- 

 utes, when the dog will readily find them, as they have 

 moved and given out their scent. You can often persuade 

 them to move by imitating the call of the old bird, but 

 before doing so it is necessary to leave the spot for a 

 time. 



Early in the season, after nine and before eleven o'clock 

 in the morning, it is a good plan after having flushed a 

 bevy, and marked it down in good cover, to go over the 

 feeding-grounds near by before following up the birds, be- 

 cause a good deal of time would be cut to waste, and any 

 other bevies in that vicinity would have gone from their 

 feeding-grounds, and hidden away in some covert where 

 it might be no easy matter for your dog to find them. 

 When the birds are full-grown, they are strong on the 

 wing, take long flights, and usually go to the wood?*, 

 under-brush, or brush-heaps. When followed to the 



