66 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING. 



main m the stubble fields all day in damp or cloudy 

 weather, unless driven out by beating, and as they are 

 then very tame, a person may approach them to withm a 

 few feet before they flush. The result is, that his bag is 

 generally heavy, for the cool air and exercise brace up his 

 nerves to such a pitch that he may score with his right and 

 left barrels, in the majority of cases, without much trouble. 



Later in the season, that is, from about the last of Oc- 

 tober to the latter end of December, the middle of the 

 day is an excellent time for pursuing them, as they like 

 to bask m the sun in open places; but as they are very 

 wild, strong on the wing, and fly rapidly, it requires 

 good shooting and hard hitting to kill them. When 

 flushed, if the day is cold and the wind blustry, they 

 may fly ten miles or more before they alight. It takes 

 No. 6 shot and a good choke-bore to bring them down at 

 that time, Avhereas, No. 8 or 9 is fully large enough in 

 the early part of the season. 



They seem to be wilder in cloudy or rainy than in fine 

 weather, late in the autumn, for they take wing almost 

 as soon as they hear the human voice or detect the pres- 

 ence of a dog, but on sunny days they will often 

 permit the animal to approach them to within fifteen 

 or twenty yards, as if they were too lazy to fly, or 

 revelled so much in the sunshine that they disliked leav- 

 ing the spots where its warm rays fell. When they do 

 rise, however, it is with a startling whirr, and as soon as 

 they fairly get on the wing they scud away at such a rate 

 of speed that it requires a close, hard-hitting gun to stop 

 them. Most of the birds spring from their shelter on 

 hearing the voice, or the report of a gun, but several may 

 stay behind, and as these often rise singly before a dog, a 

 man can grass the majority of them. When the ground 

 is covered with snow, they may be readily found in the 

 timber, as they keep cackling, crooning, and chattering 

 to one another, like the domestic fowls when roosting. 



