94 FIELD SHOOTING. 



wheat-growing States, there is very fine quail- 

 shooting sooner in the season than there is in 

 Illinois. With us the best shooting cannot be 

 enjoyed until late in the fall. Before that time 

 the immense corn-fields enable the quail to get 

 the best of the sportsman. As soon as a bevy 

 is flushed away it goes for the corn, which is 

 thick, broad in the blade, and very high. 1 

 stand six feet in height, and I have seen stalks 

 of Illinois corn so tall that I could but just reach 

 the lowest ears upon them. There is no making 

 headway and filling the bag in such fields as 

 these ; and the moment the quail are flushed on 

 the wheat and oat stubbles away they go for 

 the corn. You may give them up as soon as 

 they reach this tall, thick, and dense cover. If 

 you make an attempt at them in it, they will 

 not rise above the tops, so that you cannot see 

 to shoot ; besides which, the thickest spread of 

 the broad blades is just about as high as your 

 head, and above it. It is not until good, sharp 

 frosts have well wilted the blades and caused them 

 to hang down lifeless along the stalk that there 

 is a good chance at the quail in such places. 

 As long as the leaves wave crisp in the autumn 

 wind the quail may defy the shooter. Therefore 



