QUAIL SHOOTING 347 
comparison with the 12-bore. Closer holding is re- 
quired to shoot them well. Whichever bore is used, 
it should not be closely choked. There is no need of 
a choke bore in quail shooting. 
It is an extremely difficult matter to induce the 
average shooter to use an improved cylinder-bore gun. 
The recommendation to use an open bore seems to be 
construed as reflecting on his ability to shoot a close 
gun, instead of being accepted as sound information 
concerning the gun fit for that particular kind of game. 
It requires time to effect a reformation concerning the 
use of the choke bores in quail shooting. The sports- 
man should go forth equipped for his sport according 
to his needs, and not to the whimsicalities of senseless 
fashion. He should not take a full-choked gun in 
cover, nor a cylinder-bore gun to shoot ducks. There 
should be intelligent adjustment of means to ends. In- 
dustry and skill and woodcraft should not be balked 
by visionary theories and inappropriate weapons. 
The foregoing is written of the quail as it refers to 
man’s pleasure afield with dog and gun. Naturally it 
is not fearful of man, and rather prefers to dwell near 
his haunts, not from an affection for him, but from 
the fact that near cultivated sections there is always 
more food to be found than in the uncultivated. The 
matter of providing food for itself and its young is 
quite as constant and insistent in the life of the quail 
as it is in the life of man. 
It often nests in or near the cultivated field. Its 
cheery, ventriloquial whistle, reiterating its favorite 
