144 GAME BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA. 



a good half-day's find. When a covey has been flushed and gone 

 down, if there be thick weeds or grass, they will hide at once, and 

 are easily found by the dog. If they come down near piles of 

 brush they are almost sure to run into them, but a kick or two will 

 generally get them out. If they fly to thick bushes they will prob- 

 ably run together, and get away as fast as they can run, and it is a 

 singular fact that a dog which had no difficulty in trailing them 

 before they were put up will be totally unable to do it now, and 

 so it is useless to follow them unless there is snow, and even then 

 it is doubtful if you get a shot, for they will travel faster through 

 the brush than you can follow. Possibly it is generally known to 

 sportsmen that quail will double under such circumstances like a 

 hare, but this trait has been noted repeatedly. We have also 

 noticed that a dog can smell but very little when the weather is 

 cold and the ground covered with fine dry snow. In fact a dog is 

 at a disadvantage, if not thoroughly broken. If a covey be flushed, 

 and on coming down one of them gives a call or two, you may look 

 for them to fly again almost immediately. They occasionally do 

 this when they happen to come down where the cover does not 

 suit them. In the early part of the season one can frequently learn 

 where the scattered ones are by imitating their call, which eveiy 

 one can do with a little practice. Later in the season this will not 

 succeed till near sundown. In Florida the quail are very fre- 

 quently found in gardens or clearings along the borders of pal- 

 metto scrub. If the garden or field be fenced, let the dog and one 

 gunner take the field, and another gunner work the outside, taking 

 the birds as they fly over into the scrub. Once in this cover they 

 are safe, for neither dog, man, nor double-plated pachydermata 

 can follow them. 



The early days of the season are not so good, for shooting, as 

 a month later ; for, after being shot into a few times, the coveys 

 become shy and wild and take to the woods, where they find plenty 

 of food, such as acorns, etc., and resort to the stubble fields only 

 very early in the morning and late in the afternoon ; and during 

 the intervening part of the day, especially if the weather is warm, 

 they are generally scattered along the banks of water-courses or 

 branches of creeks which run through the woods. As the season 

 advances, towards the first and middle of December, when the 



