PARTRIDGE SHOOTING. 387 



a hundred yards if a grouse, or fifty yards if a par- 

 tridge, to tower or spire in the air, and fall down 

 dead. When only one leg falls, the bird should be 

 watched, but in the latter case, it generally happens 

 that the leg or thigh only has been struck. Any 

 bird that flinches, on being fired at, or whose feathers 

 are in the least disordered, should be marked down, 

 and followed. Grouse more frequently fly away 

 wounded than partridges. Grouse are often recover- 

 ed several hundred yards from the gun. 



Until November or December, young grouse, 

 black-game, partridges, and pheasants, may be dis- 

 tinguished from old ones by the lower beak not 

 being strong enough to bear the weight of their 

 bodies. The lower beak of an old partridge is strong 

 enough to sustain the weight of a brace of birds ; 

 but a young bird cannot be raised by the lower beak 

 without the lower beak bending under the weight. 

 The head of a buck hare is larger, and the neck and 

 ears are shorter than of a doe. Old hares may be 

 distinguished from full-grown young hares by the 

 strength of their jaw-bones, or the closeness of the 

 knee-joint of the fore-legs. 



The number of birds in a covey varies much, 

 perhaps the average may be from ten to fifteen. 

 In some years, when the coveys are large after a 

 fine hatching season, it is not uncommon to see 

 upwards of twenty birds in a covey ; and some- 

 times after a wet season, ten birds may be deemed 

 a fair covey. Birds are most numerous after a 

 dry summer. When there are thunder-storms 

 about midsummer, great numbers of young birds 



