146 HUNTING TRIPS 



Our plan was to drive from one field to an- 

 other, getting out at each and letting the 

 dogs hunt it over. The birds were in small 

 coveys and lay fairly well to the dogs, 

 though they rose much farther off from us 

 in the grain fields than they did later in the 

 day when we flushed them from the tall 

 grass of the prairie (I call it tall grass 

 in contradistinction to the short bunch 

 grass of the cattle plains to the westward). 

 Old stub-tail, though slow, was very 

 staunch and careful, never flushing a bird, 

 while the puppy, from pure heedlessness, 

 and with the best intentions, would some- 

 times bounce into the midst of a covey be- 

 fore he knew of their presence. On the 

 other hand, he covered twice the ground 

 that the pointer did. The actual killing the 

 birds was a good deal like quail shooting 

 in the East, except that it was easier, the 

 marks being so much larger. When we 

 came to a field we would beat through it a 

 hundred yards apart, the dogs ranging in 



