THE QUAILS OF CALIFORNIA. 69 



he has scrambled out of the ravine, and got to where he 

 can hear or see the main fiock again, they are some 

 300 yards or more farther away, all together again, 

 and all prepared to lead him another weary chase. And 

 so he may go on until, heated, breathless, and thoroughly 

 mad, he quits the field with six or eight birds, declaring 

 that of all sublunary abominations California quail-shoot- 

 ing takes the lead. 



This is a very hasty judgment, however, for nothing in 

 the line of shooting will exceed the certainty with which 

 that same man, after a few weeks' practice, will bag from 

 150 to 200 birds with little more work than his first half 

 a dozen cost him. And the regularity and quickness of 

 his shooting will scarcely equal the certainty and quick- 

 ness with which he will pick up dead birds, remembering, 

 unconsciously, their course, speed, direction of wind, etc. , 

 and going at once to where they fell, guided only, perhaps, 

 by a single feather on a bush to a bird twenty or thirty 

 feet away. 



The first, and in fact the only important, step to easy 

 success is not to attempt to bag anything at first, but 

 spend all your time in breaking and scattering the flock. 

 This can be done only by rapid and repeated flushing, 

 without giving them time to get together again. Firing 

 over them, and especially in front of them, materially aids 

 this scattering. For this reason, two persons can always 

 do better together than alone, and by working around on 

 the outside can keep the birds more or less rounded-up 

 toward a common center. The more rapidly you run 

 upon the flock, and the more noise you make, the more apt 

 you are to break the flock at the first charge; and if two 

 or more persons are ahead of them, and fire their guns off, 

 the greater the probability of this result. Wherever the 

 flock alights the first time, lose no time in getting there. 

 At each charge you make upon them, they will scatter 



