PARTRIDGES AND PHEASANTS. 173 



This " tinamous" is a bird in appearance something between 

 a quail and a partridge, but more closely allied in structure 

 to the former. 



It will be seen that the existence of these little birds, 

 with enemies on every shore, is "not a happy one." Even 

 in Malta the natives keep dogs who are especially trained 

 for quail hunting. When the nights arrive the huntsman 

 goes forth with his trusty dog and an ordinary casting-net 

 over his arm. The dog hunts for the birds, which he finds 

 by scent, and drives very slowly before him to the base 

 of one of the numerous stone walls which cut up the island 

 in every direction. Here the quail crouches, awed by its 

 canine foe, who then remains motionless within a yard or 

 so, until the man creeps up and throws the casting-net over 

 both dog and bird. 



In our own southern counties, advantage is taken of the 

 disinclination of the quail to fly while it can use its legs, 

 and V-shaped enclosures are formed with low brushwood 

 sides, a couple of hundred yards wide at the mouth, but 

 tapering down to a point, whence a single small opening 

 gives access to a netted chamber. Men and boys then drive 

 the game slowly into the open V, and the birds, running 

 from their enemies, coast down the sides of the snare until 

 they come to the apex, and crowd through the opening into 

 the fatal chamber, the net over which renders their wings 

 useless. 



Turning to partridges we would suggest that, much as 

 we owe agriculturally to the inventor of those highly 

 perfected machines which shear our corn-fields to the last 

 inch or two of straw, and lay out the yellow harvest with 

 mathematical precision over the close-cropped land, from 

 a sportsman's point of view the work is done too well and 

 too thoroughly. Not so very long ago the occupation of the 

 gleaner was a substantial reality, and less the utter myth 

 of to-day, while the reaper's sickle or scythe never cut corn 

 quite down to its last joint, but left a reasonable amount 



