BOB WHITE. 153 



the room, it will give out an unpleasant odor; but if you 

 take it into the open air, shake it violently for several 

 minutes, then wrap it up into a small compass and put it 

 under some article of furniture in the same room, your 

 olfactories will not be able to detect its presence. It is 

 so with Bob Whites; when flushed, their rapid motion 

 through the air dissipates the scent, and sometimes they 

 will plunge into thick grass or cover, press themselves 

 closely against the ground, fold their wings tightly to 

 their bodies, and appear hardly to breathe; then, until 

 they move, it is difficult for the dogs to smell them. But 

 these instances are rare; as a general rule, when the bird 

 alights, he moves enough to give forth scent. Herbert, 

 and others, who advise novices to hold up their dogs for 

 a considerable space of time, are misled. In some cases 

 it will be well, but far oftener it will cause useless delay. 

 If your dogs are good, and the day be an average one for 

 scent, mark your birds down and go promptly to them. 

 If you delay too long, the birds will run together again, 

 and you will merely get another covey rise. That the 

 Bob White does this because he is frightened and wishes 

 to conceal himself from the eye of the hunter, not from 

 the nose of the dog, I believe, for two reasons. First, if 

 they had this power and knowledge, we should have to 

 steal upon them unaware to secure a point; and,- secondly, 

 we find this phenomenon most frequent where the birds 

 have been flushed and scattered by hawks, whose keen 

 sight, not scenting powers, they dread. 



No men know better than our field-trial handlers 

 what a bird-dog can do, and none are better informed 

 about Bob Whites; and anyone who has ever judged at 

 field trials, will readily testify to the vexatious, but 

 rather excusable, manner in which these handlers will 

 rush their dogs to secure points on birds just flushed and 

 scattered, in order to earn thereby valuable prizes, and 



