CHAPTER XV. 



ORTYX. 



(Ortyx.) 



THE Virginian ortyx is to be found from the .Gulf of 

 Mexico to Upper Canada, and from the Atlantic sea-board 

 to the confines of the Western settlements eastward of the 

 Rocky Mountains, its vagrant habits occasionally causing 

 it to stray so far north as to cause thousands to perish 

 through the severity of the winter; for although so reck- 

 less of consequences they are far from hardy. They are 

 sought for in the same manner as partridges are in En- 

 gland, viz., with setters and pointers ; but from their being 

 a smaller bird, and lying closer, it is desirable, when in 

 their pursuit, to use smaller shot. If justifiable to envy 

 your neighbors the possession of any thing, I think the 

 sportsman who has killed this game must often have wish- 

 ed in his heart that it was abundant in England. 



If all who have traveled abroad or sojourned in foreign 

 lands had done so with their eyes shut, or if, not keeping 

 their orbits closed, they had refused to give their country- 

 men the benefit of their experience, a useless lot they would 

 have been, and England, as far as progression is concerned, 

 would have been far behind her present advanced position. 

 He who first introduced the idea of crossing our native 

 horse with the foreigner did an immense public service ; he 

 who introduced the old Spanish pointer deserves the grati- 

 tude of every sportsman, for doubtless our present beauties, 

 with all their speed and sagacity, have much of the blear- 

 eyed, bad-tempered, pottering old scoundrels' blood in their 

 veins. And still further, to foreign climes we trace the 



