ABUNDANCE OF GROUSE. 263 



over my left shoulder, I walked, followed by my horse, 

 in a half-circle, ahead of my pointers, and having 

 flushed the covey, I made my shot, or shots. Then 

 before loading, or whilst loading, I followed the covey 

 with my eyes till they alighted ; and taking a bunch of 

 wild myrtle bushes, a taller weed than usual, a bunch 

 of flowers, blue, red, or yellow, a wild coffee-bean bush, 

 or, if none of these could be seen, a speck of white 

 cloud in the dark blue sky, or lastly, the bearing of my 

 own shadow, I, when my gun was ready, followed them 

 up, my dogs having first retrieved my dead birds. As 

 I had sometimes a mile or two to go, my horse saved 

 me much fatigue. 



I may state, relative to the abundance of the prairie 

 grouse in Texas, that I never went out with the express 

 desire of shooting them without making a good bag. 



The American Quail {Ortyx Virginiana), bears 

 equally well the two extremes of climate, the cold of 

 an Upper Canadian winter, and the fierce summer sun 

 of Texas. Almost everywhere in the United States 

 it is called the partridge, and in the Southern States, 

 where it is not migratory, it more nearly resembles 

 in its habits the English partridge than the European 

 quail. 



Even as to the quail (0. V.) being migratory 

 in the Xorthern States, opinions are divided, as 

 the conclusion of the following quotation from the pen 

 of the late ' Frank Forester ' (Henry William Herbert), 



