PLIGHT OF THE PARTRIDGE. 75 



have a quick eye and ready finger, and you must handle 

 yourself and gun, and shape your movements very quickly 

 to cut them down. When they are flushed on a moun- 

 tain, or on a hill, they usually make longer flights than 

 they do when flushed on the level ground. Their flight is 

 considerably increased in velocity by a strong wind, and 

 nine times out of ten, they will fly with the wind, even 

 should they be flushed against the wind. When the wind 

 is blowing a gale, or a north-wester, to bring them down 

 your movements and actions must be very quick, and 

 keen, or they will not be stopped. The flight of Partridges 

 varies very much as regards distance, according to the 

 ground where they are flushed, the season of the year, and 

 the strength of the wind, and whether they have been 

 much disturbed or not. In the first of the shooting season, 

 when the birds are young, and have not been too much 

 shot at, their flight rarely exceeds more than three hun- 

 dred yards in distance, and many will come down inside of 

 half this distance. In thicket and swamp, where the cover 

 is dense, they seldom fly very far before they settle. In 

 open country where the cover is thin, and the ground 

 bare, they usually fly much farther on being flushed. On 

 rolling land, or on hills, they often make very long flights, 

 and if they once get in the habit of making long flights, 

 they are sure to repeat them on being much disturbed. 

 Late in the season I have often seen whole covies, when 

 they were wild from frequent flushing, take wing from the 

 side of a hill,, and fly entirely out of sight to an adjoining 

 hill, over the tops of the highest trees, and I have often 

 had a quarter of a mile, or more, to walk, before reaching 

 them again. When Partridges rise of their own free will, 

 the whole covey flies in the same course. When flushed 

 by a sportsman they invariably seek safety by separating. 

 When flushed in the open fields they usually fly for thick 

 cover, in swamps, woods, thickets, and the like, and if you 

 are standing between them and the cover, when they are 

 flushed, they are just as likely to fly to the right, or to the 

 left, or over your head, as they are to fly off in a straight 



