AN ARCADIAN CALENDAR 



SPORTSMEN sometimes notice a remarkable point about 

 woodcock that when one is shot, having 

 A been flushed from some dell which always 



Woodcock looks as if it would suit a woodcock for his 

 Mystery day-time doz.ing, another, within a day or 

 two, takes possession of the same quarters. 

 Several birds like to keep solitary state in their own 

 little realms in Winter and may have a very human 

 envy of others' realms certainly a garden corner, 

 which is ideal in one robin's view, will be occupied 

 eagerly by another if the chance comes. In days when 

 it was thought no crime to shoot kingfishers on sight, 

 the old school of sportsmen-naturalists often noted how 

 one kingfisher would take a fallen bird's place, as 

 mysteriously and as surely as a widowed cock sparrow- 

 hawk will attract a fresh bride. So anglers tell how a big 

 trout, taken from a favoured hover, is succeeded by 

 another, presumably the next in size and power. 



THE little quail, that miniature partridge (though lack- 

 ing the partridge's ideal of monogamy), is 

 Quails more familiar in game- dealers' stores in 

 town in Winter than as a dweller in our 

 countrysides ; but it has been observed wintering in the 

 Isle of Wight, and in the course of what sportsmen 

 knew of old, when the bird was plentiful, as a " Quail 

 Year," it will linger through the Winter of our warm 

 West country. Unfortunately the quail has a reputation 

 as the most appealing of all game-birds to the gourmet. 

 After harvesting-days, when consorting with part- 

 ridges, and when put up in their company by the 

 beaters, they have often been spared a shot from being 

 mistaken for " squeakers." One of the quail's names 



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