294 



MODERN TRAINING. 



forced to protect their birds for two or three years at a 

 time, in consequence of the enormous destruction caused 

 by occasional severe winters. In the South, the season 

 legally opens about September i, and closes about March or 

 April i, thus affording six or seven months of an open sea- 

 son. The best months, however, are November, December, 

 January, February and March. 



A knowledge of their habits is of prime importance to the 

 best success. Quails are early risers, and he who wishes to 

 get the best shooting or the most opportunities for his dogs 

 in a given time will be none too early if he is afield by the 

 break of day. In the hot days of September, October, and 

 early November, it is necessary, in training, to be abroad 

 early in the morning, or in the cool part of the evening. 

 During the winter, months the trainers can find sufficient 

 birds for their purpose in any part of the day. From 

 twelve to thirty bevies are about the number that can be 

 found in a day in the best sections, and from twenty to one 

 hundred birds reward the efforts of the shooter. The birds 

 are usually plentiful enough every season, but when a sea- 

 son is exceptionally favorable for breeding, they abound in 

 great numbers. Quail shooting in the South may be said 

 to be strictly upland shooting, differing in this respect from 

 the like shooting in the East, where the birds go to dense, 

 wet swamps at the first flight, and where it is necessary to 

 pursue and diligently seek for them, if the success of the 

 bag is duly observed. 



In the South, the immense plantations, with their large 

 sedge fields, plum thickets, cornfields, woods, large fallow 

 fields covered with weeds, afford haunts for the birds, and 

 the pea-patches and fields, sorghum fields, corn and wheat 

 fields, Japanese clover, etc., furnish an abundant food sup- 

 ply during the fall, winter and spring. The habits of the 

 birds are variable according to the means of supplying their 



