44 The Partridge Family 



them, the young birds will neither call nor 

 respond to the most clever imitation of the rally- 

 ing pipe. With her out of the way, the young- 

 sters are like so many lost lambs, only too ready 

 to respond to even a crude imitation of the loved 

 voice of their shepherd. The habit of looking 

 for the old hen has another value. It helps a 

 man to learn how to pick his birds — a most 

 important feature of steady shooting. When he 

 can do this, and has learned to lead all quarterers 

 according to distance, to hold high on straighta- 

 ways about as high as his head, low on low-flying 

 straightaways and dead on incomers, and to pull 

 trigger with the finger and not with the hand and 

 arm, and to do it without stopping the smooth 

 swing of the gun, — he should be quite a quail 

 shot. 



Just after the bevy has gone, and when one or 

 more birds are down, is when the novice or the 

 over excitable man makes serious blunders. The 

 first thing to do is to stand in your tracks and 

 reload, the dog meanwhile being down. Keep 

 him so for the moment, then calmly order him 

 on, either to retrieve, or to point dead, according 

 to his training. Few novices realize the full 

 importance of a leisurely, methodical deportment. 

 Dogs are clever judges of character, and a brainy 

 brute is quick to measure his man. Any undue 

 excitement, or flurried haste to secure the game, 



