BOB-WHITE 123 



ion, the best sport offered to the sportsmen of America. 

 Here the swiftly flying marks test his skill to the ut- 

 most. Here his dogs appear to the best advantage. 

 Often the shooting is quite rapid, many double shots 

 are offered and the background is the most beautiful in 

 the world. The brilliant colors of the trees, the fallen 

 logs, moss and lichen covered, the carpet of bright 

 leaves, the grass and the vines, are blended with many 

 tones of gray and the blue mist of the Indian summer. 

 " Whirr ! Whirr ! " go the birds, " Bang ! Bang ! " go 

 the guns. Here, to my mind, is the acme of sports 

 afield. 



The average number of birds killed from each 

 covey is small. Alfred Mayer, quoting Mr. H. H. B. 

 Davis, says the average is a little over three birds 

 brought to bag from each covey flushed. Mr. Starr, 

 after taking the opinion of nearly three hundred 

 sportsmen who replied to his inquiry, places the aver- 

 age at a smaller number. An average shot in a good 

 average day (finding nine coveys), he says, will bag 

 twenty birds, killing 53 per cent, of his shots. The 

 reader who will keep a record of the number of coveys 

 which he shoots at in a season and the number of 

 birds brought to bag will find these figures not far 

 wrong. 



On stormy days and on days when the snow covers 

 the fields so as to render the partridges conspicuous 

 they will always be found in the woods. The sports- 

 man who is familiar with his ground and knows the 

 fields where the partridges usually are, will seek them 

 in the adjoining cover and not very far from the 

 fence. I have often pjat up the covey from an angle 



