QUAIL SHOOTING 335 



skill of the most expert sportsman. And again, taken 

 all in all, whether in open or cover, the quail shooter 

 of good average skill can compass a good showing 

 in results, and thus enjoy the pleasure which comes 

 from reasonable success. 



In this connection it may not be amiss to maintain 

 that a certain degree of success is essential to the 

 shooter's pleasure. Many writers deprecate the con- 

 sideration of the bag, treating it as an irrelevant, gross 

 incident, so dominated by the beauties of nature and 

 the ethics of shooting, in the abstract, that it should 

 be mentioned in hushed tones or viewed with eyes 

 askance. The beautiful and the useful of sport should 

 go hand in hand. Each is a part of the great whole, 

 and as such should be equal factors of sportsmanship. 

 To the sentimental, which ennobles and adorns the 

 useful of life, there must be added the material and 

 the practical. To the shooter there must be a reward 

 for his efforts. It has often been said that it is not 

 all of shooting to shoot, nor all of fishing to fish, for- 

 getting the converse, that, all of shooting or fishing 

 being absent, there is no shooting nor fishing at all. 



As to quail shooting in respect to quantity, there 

 is more of it than there is of any other kind of shoot- 

 ing, hence each shooter can better satisfy his longings 

 for sport if it be measured by the possibilities of the 

 bag or the number of opportunities offered. And 

 there is also more of it when measured by the matter 

 of time, for it extends through a season of about five 

 months, taking it as it is in the North and South. 



