Bob White, the Game Bird of America. 677 



will get nothing but wet legs by tramping the fields while the 

 ground is iced and while the birds are yet huddled and have not 

 spread their scent 



When the dogs are seeking the coveys, let them range widely. 

 When they stand the covey, do not exhaust yourself with haste in 

 reaching them, but approach leisurely and quietly. When the covey 

 springs be very quick, but very, very steady, and do not fire till you 

 are sure of your aim. Remember that it is your left arm and wrist 

 that direct your gun ; so grasp it well forward on the fore-end, and 

 not near the breech, as some do. You will thus be able to give your 

 gun that quick and firm motion which is indispensable to skill in 

 "snap-shooting"; and all shooting at Bob White is of that character. 



If it is your first shot of the season, and you are not gifted with 

 a very steady nerve, you will do well to charge your gun with but 

 one cartridge. By doing so, it is probable that a bird will drop to 

 your first shot. If you had had two shots, you might have been too 

 anxious for two birds, and thus have lost both. After two or three 

 successes with a single barrel, try "a double" over the next point. 



Always flush the birds yourself, for a dog "hied on" to flush may 

 do so of his own accord when you are out of gunshot. At the 

 springing of the covey, the dog must "down charge," or "drop to 

 shot," and in either case hold his charge till ordered to "hold up" or 

 to "seek dead." If he "break shot," he will often cause you great 

 vexation in the loss of shots by his flushing birds which did not 

 spring with their fellows, but which now get up in rapid succession, 

 and before you have had time to reload. But a good retriever has 

 his greatest pleasure in fetching a dead bird, and the intense satis- 

 faction this act gives to him often causes him to lose his head and 

 rush in on the report of the gun. The dropping to shot and retain- 

 ing charge is one of the prime requisites in a dog, and is as difficult 

 to teach a good retriever as it is essential to the true enjoyment of 

 sport. 



If the dog is unsteady, and apt to "break shot," do not load if 

 you have fired only one barrel, for, in so doing, other birds may rise 

 just as you have opened your, gun or are handling a cartrich 



After the covey has been scattered, give your dog but little range 

 Keep your eye well on him as you approach the ground where you 

 or your gillie has marked the birds. Be ready, if he be rash when 



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