66 UPLAND SHOOTIXG. 



much hunted. Probably no bird on earth so baffles the 

 tyro. He hears the wook, wook, wook, and sees occasional 

 dark-blue streaks through open places ahead of him, gone 

 before he can raise his gun. Trying all the time to get a 

 shot at a bunch on the ground, he thinks if he only goes 

 carefully, and looks keenly enough, he will get a fine 

 "pot-shot." Meanwhile, the birds trot along ahead of 

 him through the brush, keeping up their whit, whit, 

 whit, and wook, wook, wook, just a yard or two beyond 

 good shooting distance, but with such a tempting tame- 

 ness as to delude him constantly with the idea that a 

 little more caution, and a little more keenness of eye, will 

 secure a fine shot at a bunch. In this way they lead him 

 up one hill, down the next slope, and up the next, nearly 

 always a little too far, yet always equally tempting. 

 Perhaps he gets a shot at thirty or thirty-five yards into 

 a large bunch in some opening, and pours his second 

 barrel in all confidence into the roaring black sheet that 

 rises at the report of his first barrel. No more stunning 

 surprise awaits mortal man than when, after two such 

 shots, the tyro advances hopefully through the smoke to 

 bag his game. He sees, perhaps, a wing-broken bird or 

 two scud darkly away through the brush almost as fast as 

 it once could fly, finds a few feathers, and hears a bird 

 fluttering in its death-struggles a dozen yards or more 

 down the hill-side among the brush. But more often he 

 finds nothing but a few feathers, and by the time he gives 

 up the search for a dead bird, the flock is two or three 

 hundred yards away on another hill-side, already col- 

 lected together, and ready to repeat the same games. 



But still more amusing is often the work of the experi- 

 enced shot from the East, who comes with a good dog, a 

 quick eye, and ready finger a skillful shot, perhaps, both 

 in cover and in the open. Most of the Calif ornians claim 

 that their valley quail is a harder bird to shoot than Bob 



