QUAIL-SHOOTING. 99 



whistler. The sportsman should then keep perfectly 

 still, until he has reason to think they have had time 

 to come together j and he should not try to imitate 

 the cock's whistle, unless he be an expert, for these 

 birds are wary, and can tell pretty surely whether or 

 not it is a quail that is whistling. 



Perhaps no bird flies more rapidly, all circumstances 

 considered, than the quail ; and the sportsman must 

 be on the qui vive to get in both barrels effectively 

 after the bevy have sprung ; and also he needs a smart 

 shooting gun, one capable of bringing down a bird at 

 forty yards, as his second bird will frequently be at 

 this distance. As a general thing, however, the sports- 

 man gets quite near the quail ^otherwise, they would 

 be very scarce in the market Quail seldom take to 

 the tree unless much frightened, and then more gener- 

 ally in rough, mountainous countries, than in low 

 meadow grounds. Their flight is often very long. It 

 is said that they take in their flight but one respiration, 

 which indicates that they possess great lung capacity. 

 They will often keep up their flight for quite a distance 

 after receiving their death-wound, dropping dead sud- 

 denly when under full headway in the air. 



Quails usually make their nests on the ground, by 

 the headlands of cultivated fields, among a few trees, 

 and near a fence, or amidst tufts of grass. The num- 

 ber of eggs is from fifteen to twenty-four. Seventeen 

 is the largest number I have ever seen in one nest. 



This bird and the ruffed grouse are generally thought 

 to be untamable. 



