THE COMMON QUAIL. 105 



three men in a line, beating the ground slowly, may get 

 up some, but they will walk over far more than they 

 spring. Quails squat very close and run A'ery quick. 

 A close-hunting, heavy retrieving spaniel would be the 

 best dog in quail-shooting here, for they require a good 

 deal of bustling to get them up, and this is not a country 

 for a fine-broken pointer ; for, owing to the running of all 

 the game birds, and the quantities of field-mice that 

 infest the plains and heather, I'll defy any dog, no matter 

 how well broken, to be stanch to his game out here. 



The great drawback to shooting small game in this 

 country is the quantity that is spoiled by the heat. A 

 large fishing-creel is the best thing to carry small game 

 in, packing them carefully in on layers of grass or tea- 

 tree, as we serve the grouse on the moors at home. As 

 soon as you come home, wipe away all the blood and 

 loose feathers, and hang the birds in small wisps up in a 

 draught : the higher they are the more they will be out 

 of the way of the flies. An old friend of mine used to 

 adopt a capital plan with his snipe and quail. As soon as 

 he came home, he tied up each bird separately in a 

 cabbage-leaf, and laid them carefully in an iron camp- 

 oven, keeping on the top. No English sportsman can 

 form any idea how soon the game goes here. The flies 

 blow so quickly, that I have often taken a bird out of my 

 bag, killed but a few hours, a living mass of maggots. It 

 is a good plan, if your day's sport keeps you in one 

 spot, to hang the birds in small wisps as you kill them, 

 high up in tea-tree and other scrub, in the shade : they 



