UPLAND SHOOTING, 231 



remarkable if, with u gun that scatters its charge, even a 

 good shot miss this ])ir(l even at a short range ; and that at 

 thirty or forty paces the very best guns, aimed with peri'ect 

 precision, tail frequently of killing clean. 



The Quail is a very brave bird, moreover. He will caiTy 

 off a great quantity of shot, if not lodged in a vital part, and 

 will frequent y, even when mi)rtally wounded, particularly if 

 shot through the brain or heart, and going before the wind, fly 

 till life- leaves him in mid air, and even after that will be pro- 

 pelled by the rapidity of his previous motion and the buoyancy 

 of his still extended wings, fur many yards farther in a descend- 

 ing line. 



A singular instance of this occurred to myself while shooting 

 in the Highlands of the Hudson, nearly opposite to West 

 Point, witli two friends, in November, 1S39. We were beating 

 a bare field on one of the lower hills of that chain, in which 

 were several shallow ravines lying nearly parallel to each other, 

 pointing transversely downward. 



I was in the lowest of three gulleys with a brace of dogs, and 

 perha})s a hundred yards in advance of my companions, each 

 of whom, with one dog, was making good another parallel 

 gorge. 



The wind was blowing keenly and coldly on our backs, and 

 before us lay a long range of open fields sloping steeply toward 

 the river, with a piece of young woodland, bounded by a stone 

 wall on the hither side, beyond them. 



Finding no game myself, I was suddenly put on the alert by 

 the quick shout, " mark ! mark !" from behind, somewhat to my 

 left ; and in the next moment a large bevy of birds, which had 

 been raised by my friends and circled round my back, passed 

 me within twenty paces to the right. 



It struck me at the time, that I never had seen birds fly so 

 fast ; they had already traversed sufficient space to have gained 

 the full momentum of their own velocity, and had in their favor 

 all the impetus that the swift wind, directly before which they 

 were flying, could give them. I was shooting with a gun that 



