Small Game Shooting 277 



tory, but to reach these the sportsman must travel 



far from all settlements, and camp out. A and 



I annually organise at least one such expedition, 

 and return with strings of the slain, now thankfully 

 accepted by our neighbours ; but as both of us are 

 more or less tied to the ranch, we have been con- 

 strained to take to the mountains close at hand, and 

 there have learned at last the art of shooting quail 

 with all the odds in favour of the bird and against 

 the gun. It is a day of small bags and very hard 

 work, and we have been forced to study systemati- 

 cally the habits and habitat of the game. Till a 

 sportsman learns to do this, he may be said to be 

 still unbreeched. 



For quail are crafty as foxes. For instance, we 

 will suppose that a bevy has been flushed, and, 

 rising out of range, has flown a quarter of a mile 

 and lit in a steep gulch bristling with brambles and 

 scrub-oak, — a favourite place. The veteran will 

 waste no time in following his quarry, for he knows 

 that they will run swiftly up the gulch, across the 

 crest of the hill, and probably be lost in a heavily 

 wooded canon upon the other side. When he 

 stands, breathless, upon the spot where the birds 

 settled, he is not surprised that they are not there, 

 and, as he pauses, he probably hears a cock call 

 half-way up the gulch, " kah-kah-ka-o-o-w ! " In 

 reply there is a peculiar chatter from a bird, evi- 

 dently concealed close by — a sentinel; and after 

 that not a sound; but the wise man will infer 

 that the main body of the bevy is running ahead 

 as fast as their sturdy, well-muscled legs can carry 

 them. Again, we will assume that a big band has 



