QUAIL SHOOTING 335 
skill of the most expert sportsman. And again, taken 
all in all, whether in open or cover, the quail shooter 
of good average skill can compass a good showing 
in results, and thus enjoy the pleasure which comes 
from reasonable success. 
In this connection it may not be amiss to maintain 
that a certain degree of success is essential to the 
shooter’s pleasure. Many writers deprecate the con- 
sideration of the bag, treating it as an irrelevant, gross 
incident, so dominated by the beauties of nature and 
the ethics of shooting, in the abstract, that it should 
be mentioned in hushed tones or viewed with eyes 
askance. The beautiful and the useful of sport should 
go hand in hand. Each is a part of the great whole, 
and as such should be equal factors of sportsmanship. 
To the sentimental, which ennobles and adorns the 
useful of life, there must be added the material and 
the practical. To the shooter there must be a reward 
for his efforts. It has often been said that it is not 
all of shooting to shoot, nor all of fishing to fish, for- 
getting the converse, that, all of shooting or fishing 
being absent, there is no shooting nor fishing at all. 
As to quail shooting in respect to quantity, there 
is more of it than there is of any other kind of shoot- 
ing, hence each shooter can better satisfy his longings 
for sport if it be measured by the possibilities of the 
bag or the number of opportunities offered. And 
there is also more of it when measured by the matter 
of time, for it extends through a season of about five 
months, taking it as it is in the North and South. 
