344 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 



Many of the plantations of Louisiana are drained 

 by open ditches running parallel at reasonably equal 

 distances from each other, though the distances may 

 vary greatly one field with another and may be 50 

 or 200 yards, more or less, apart, while other ditches 

 of like arrangement intersect them at right angles; 

 thus a plantation may be cut with more or less regu- 

 larity into small squares surrounded by ditches. Some 

 plantations may be irregularly ditched, while others 

 with a far greater watershed may not be ditched at 

 all. The heavy rains round out the banks of the ditches 

 and their bottoms, and a fringe of weeds and brush, 

 thick and thin in places, strings along the banks and 

 makes a fairly good shelter for the quail. On these 

 land squares are grown cotton, or corn, or nothing, 

 as the case may be, though, if not cultivated, there is 

 always certain to be a good crop of weeds, affording 

 plenty of quail food. When flushed in such places the 

 quail may fly a few yards to the first ditch, or may 

 cross over two or three ditches before finding a place 

 to its liking. 



As mentioned elsewhere, the state of the weather 

 may greatly affect the quail's habits. The bevy having 

 gone to the ditches for safety, the dog, to be useful, 

 must have great superiority in reading if he pursues 

 satisfactorily. When in the ditch the birds run swiftly 

 along the bottom. It is almost impossible, at first, to 

 induce the green dog to go into the ditch, or, being in, 

 it is impossible to make him remain there, though it 

 may not be over a foot deep, and dry. The green dog 



