102 PRANK SCHLEY'S PARTRIDGE AND PHEASANT SHOOTING. 



kerchief on the ground, call your dog in, make him hunt 

 close around the spot, "cry dead bird," walk first here, then 

 there, and diligently search around and about the spot for 

 it until it is bagged. By pursuing this plan you will bag 

 many wounded and dead birds that your comrade and dogs, 

 by being in too much of a hurry to give them up, would 

 miss. All wounded Partridges should be followed up im- 

 mediately or they will not be found. After they die they 

 give out but little scent, and the dog is not apt to find them. 

 If a Partridge jerks at the moment of being fired at you 

 can be sure of the bird being hit, and you should watch it 

 in its flight, and mark it down very accurately, and it should 

 be searched for until found. If a Partridge flies off with 

 its legs hanging down, and pitches to and fro immediately 

 after being fired at, you can be sure the bird is hit in the 

 back and mortally wounded. It should be watched very 

 narrowly in its line of flight, and the spot where it falls 

 should be marked to a foot, and it should be followed up 

 without delay, as you will generally find it dead, and the 

 dog is not apt to find it, because it cannot move to disperse 

 the scent, and if the dog should happen to find it it will be 

 only by chance. All Partridges from which the feathers 

 fly, or which exhibit any symptoms of being hit immedi- 

 ately after being fired at should be narrowly marked down. 

 Four Partridges out of five that fly away mortally wounded, 

 especially if their legs are hanging down, fall within one 

 hundred and fifty yards of the spot where fired at, and the 

 sportsman who wishes to recover his wounded birds should 

 be particular in marking them accurately down. A poin- 

 ter or setter, one that understands his business, that will 

 search for, and hunt and trail up, and is good at finding 

 broken wing and dead birds, is indeed, in my opinion, an 

 indispensable and valuable dog to a sportsman, for unless 

 you have the assistance of a dog, and one that understands 

 his business, to find dead birds, and trail up wounded ones, 

 many dead birds will be lost, and many broken-wing birds 

 xvill get away and will not be bagged. 



