BOB WHITE. 29 



birds huddled closely together in the position in which 

 the impenetrable drift had imprisoned them. 



This species is credited by some with the power of 

 voluntarily withholding the natural scent of the body 

 on aHghting, after having been flushed. Certainly in- 

 stances are numerous, when the best dogs have been 

 brought to a place where the birds were seen to settle, 

 and although the ground was thoroughly covered in 

 every direction, nothing was found. And yet after a little 

 w^hile, if that same ground was beaten over, the dogs 

 would come to a point at every few moments and the 

 birds would flush, usually singly. Again it is not 

 unusual that when a bevy is followed immediately, when 

 the ground on which they settled was favorable, the birds 

 have been flushed without difficulty. If the scent was 

 voluntarily withheld it is natural to suppose that there 

 v.ould be no exception to the rule, and that it would 

 never be permitted to indicate the bird's presence after 

 it had been flushed and thoroughly alarmed. But the 

 instances when this is not the case are very numerous, 

 and have been experienced by every sportsman, and they 

 would seem to prove that the bird has not the power 

 to withhold this evidence of its presence at will. When 

 a bevy alights after having been flushed there are no 

 tell-tale footsteps to give notice to the keen nostrils of 

 the dog that any quail is near. Each bird, as it alights, 

 remains motionless in a compact mass, every feather 

 pressing close to the body, and occupying the smallest 

 space possible. Unless it is almost stepped upon by the 

 dog its presence would not likely be detected, for the 

 bird would not move unless trodden on, and naturally 

 there would be little or no scent from its body to betray 

 its position. But the instant a movement was made then 

 the tell-tale effluvia would escape, and the bird's locality 



