28 The Partridge Family 



very wild, to refuse to lie to the best of dogs in 

 the open, and to whizz away in long flight to 

 the heavy timber. During a snow-storm, too, the 

 chances are in favor of their acting in a most 

 erratic manner. These are bad times for dog 

 and man, and to make a good bag is well-nigh 

 an impossibility. Under these conditions, too, 

 they are given to that exasperating trick, tree- 

 ing, after the first flush, and when quail take to 

 the trees the sportsman's lot is not a happy one. 

 The best thing a man can do then is to leave 

 those birds for the day and seek another bevy; 

 for he will not, of course, pot them as they sit, 

 even should he be able to make them out, which 

 is no easy matter in tall timber. 



A marked peculiarity attributed to the quail, 

 and one over which many able writers have dis- 

 agreed, is their alleged power of withholding 

 body-scent at their discretion. " Can quail with- 

 hold their scent } " has been the subject of many 

 an inky tourney. That they do voluntarily, or 

 involuntarily, temporarily withhold body-scent 

 has been claimed by many a veteran who has 

 seen dogs of unquestioned high class utterly fail 

 to locate birds where they have been marked 

 down. The writer has seen such things happen 

 — nay ! he has even seen a rare good dog actu- 

 ally step on a bird and never dream of its pres- 

 ence till it flushed under his belly, yet that did 



