BREAKING AND HANDLING. 293 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



QUAILS, SNIPE, RUFFED GROUSE AND WOODCOCK. 



A description of the peculiarities of these birds will be 

 confined to such limits as relate to the training and hand- 

 ling of the dog. 



The game birds commonly called quails in the North and 

 partridges in the South are far superior to all others for 

 training purposes. Their greater numbers, general distri- 

 bution, habits and habitat render them unequaled, al- 

 .though certain sections from various causes may possess 

 disadvantages. In many sections of New England and the 

 Middle States, where the country is hilly and broken, 

 swamps and thickets numerous, and the birds frequently dis- 

 turbed by shooters, quail shooting is pursued under many 

 difficulties. From two to eight or ten bevies are about all 

 that can be found in a day of diligent seeking, the latter 

 number being a very unusual one. In the Western States 

 the shooting is less difficult, and the birds far more numer- 

 ous, although the country is so vast and diversified that the 

 character of the shooting varies greatly in different sections. 



Quail shooting in the South is the shooting par excel- 

 lence, the climate, topography and food supply all favoring 

 the existence and multiplication of the birds. When the 

 close season begins at the North enforced by statute law, 

 and the still more stringent laws of Nature, manifested in 

 the severe winters, quail shooting in the South is then in its 

 prime. Usually the open season is limited to two or three 

 months in the North, and many sections are periodically 



