PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 467 



prefer the scythe to the sickle, and clean husbandry, 

 large fields, and trim narrow hedges affording no 

 shelter from wet have forced the partridge a short- 

 winged* bird unwillingly to seek protection, when 

 arrived at maturity, in ready flight rather than in con- 

 cealment. Even the report of a gun does not so much 

 alarm them as the command, " Toho," or " Down 

 charge," usually too, as if to make matters worse, hal- 

 looed to the extent of the breaker's lungs. There are 

 anglers who recommend silence as conducive to success, 

 and there are no experienced sportsmen who do not 

 acknowledge its great value in shooting. Rate or beat 

 a dog at one end of a field, and the birds at the other 

 will lift their heads, become uneasy, and be ready to 

 take wing the moment you get near them. " Penn," in 

 his clever maxims on Angling and Chess, observes to 

 this effect, " if you wish to see the fish, do not let him 

 see you ;" and with respect to shooting, we may as truly 

 say, " if you wish birds to hear your gun, do not let 

 them hear your voice." Even a loud whistle disturbs 



them. Mr. O 1 of C e says a gamekeeper's 



motto ought to be, " No whistling no whipping no 

 noise, when master goes out for sport." 



8. These observations lead unavoidably to the infer- 



* The American Quail so closely resembles the English partridge 

 in all its habits, except that it takes to covert in large woodlands, 

 and occasionally trees, that all the rules of hunting and beating for 

 it, shooting it, and breaking dogs for its pursuit, are entirely identi 

 tal. IT. W H. 



