86 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING. 



good sport as almost any of their family, for they fly 

 rapidly and strongly, in a direct line. 



When insects and berries are abundant in autumn, the 

 birds are so fat that they are too lazy to rise before the 

 dog, but in winter, when they have to live on willow and 

 spruce buds, cedar berries, and other meagre pabulum, 

 they are wild and flush at long distances, and with an 

 alarmed cry of kuk-kuk, dart to the shelter of coppices 

 or shrubbery, if any are in sight. They roost in trees, 

 when they have the opportunity, during the winter, and 

 often keep to their perches all day in very cold weather. 

 On such occasions they take but little notice of the 

 sportsman even when he brings some of them tumbling 

 down; but this is not always the case, for as soon as they 

 hear the report of a gun they Avill frequently dart away, 

 only to alight again a few hundred yards further on. 

 There is no more sport in shooting them in the trees at 

 such times than there would be in bagging a lot of barn- 

 yard fowl, but when they get on the wing the matter is 

 different, and a person then feels a keen sense of pleasure 

 on seeing them strike the ground with a resonant thud. 

 Sharp-tails keep in families until the commencement of 

 cold weather, then form into large packs, and remain to- 

 gether throughout the winter. 



When this species takes wing, it rises with a loud and 

 startling whirr until it reaches a certain altitude, and 

 then flies straight ahead at a rapid rate. It can sail a 

 long distance by merely expanding its wings, and when a 

 large covey is in motion at the same time, this method 

 of flight seems very graceful. When the birds settle, 

 they commence cackling sociably to each other as soon as 

 they are over their alarm, and sometimes continue it 

 until long after dusk. In searching for them at any 

 season of the year, a person may be almost sure of meet- 

 ing them on broken ground, on the skirts of woods, and 

 among the bushes that margin fields or streams. They 



