36 The Partridge Family 



appear to pay no attention to the shrilling of a 

 dog whistle. Send a dog into a field from the lee 

 side whenever possible, then naturally he will beat 

 up wind with everything in his favor as it should 

 be. He will go up- wind to his birds (the first time 

 anyway), so, if you prefer a straightaway shot, you 

 may go up-wind to the dog and thus secure it in 

 the majority of cases. Cultivate the habit of 

 examining the ground near your feet, while at the 

 same time not losing track of the dog's move- 

 ments. The droppings and dusting places of the 

 birds are at once detected by a practised eye, and 

 there may be a shed feather here and there which 

 will give you a line on. the age of the bevy. 

 Should the dog seem to find scent, yet fail to 

 locate, study the lay of the land, particularly the 

 nearest cover. If the ground " sign," as just 

 mentioned, indicates that birds frequent the field, 

 the chances are that while the dog has found 

 scent, the birds are elsewhere. They may have 

 been recently flushed by some one belonging in 

 the neighborhood, by a hawk, or some four-footed 

 foe perhaps a cat. In any event they will 

 almost certainly have gone to cover, and probably 

 are not more than three or four hundred yards 

 away. Of course dog tracks, footprints, or empty 

 shells will indicate that somebody has worked the 

 piece ahead of you. If no sound of shooting 

 comes from the cover, it is open to you ; but if 



