BIRDS ON THEIR NESTS. IIQ 



the details are noted by one of our finest sportsmen 

 of the first half of this century, Mr. St. John, than 

 whom it would be hard to find a more acute and 

 painstaking observer of all the little details respecting 

 the habits and natural history of our British game 

 and migratory birds. 



"It is a curious fact," he says, "but one which I have often 

 observed, that dogs frequently pass close to the nest of a 

 grouse, a partridge, or other game, without scenting the hen 

 bird as she sits on her nest. I knew this year of a partridge's 

 nest, placed close to a footpath near my house, and although 

 not only my people, but all my dogs, were constantly pass- 

 ing within a foot and a half of the bird, they never found 

 her out, and she hatched her brood in safety." * 



It has also frequently been noticed that certain birds, 

 in a terror-stricken state, when hiding from their pur- 

 suers, seem to possess the power of retaining their 

 scent, and in this condition the best dogs may hunt 

 up and down close to them, without being able to find 

 them; we have often been puzzled to account for the 

 apparent stupidity of a good dog on such occasions, 

 and can come to no other conclusion than that sug- 

 gested by Frank Forrester, the well-known Ameri- 

 can sportsman, namely that it may be " possibly owing 

 to some contraction of the pores of the skin and con- 

 sequent check of the odoriferous effluvium, owing to 

 alarm," but (he goes on to state) "I am rather inclined 

 to think it is an absolute power of the bird, and aris- 

 ing from an exertion of will." The latter opinion 

 however, seems to us of somewhat questionable 

 accuracy. 



* Wild Sports and Natural History in the Scottish Highlands, by 

 Chas. St John reprint of 1880, p. 24 (Originally published 1846). 



