THE PARTRIDGE. 116 



behind him. It is bj such manoeuvres that good Sportsmen 

 always obtain game, no matter how scarce it may be. 



It is no uncommon thing, and we doubt not that many of our 

 readers will have observed the habit that Partridges have of 

 lying very close till the Sportsman has passed by, and then sud- 

 denly flirting up, and making off behind him, before he has time 

 to turn around; therefore, we repeat again, don't be in too much 

 of a hurry. Kecollect also that the Partridge of America has 

 been pronounced the most difficult of all Game Birds to find, or 

 to kill when found, and that frequently they give forth no scent 

 whatever for several minutes after they alight, and consequently 

 will defy the cleverest Dogs to point them. Do not, therefore, 

 be discouraged, either at your want of success in getting Birds 

 up or your want of skill in bringing them down on all occasions, 

 but take things coolly, and hunt your dogs patiently, more par- 

 ticularly when the Birds have flown to close cover. 



It is not always prudent to follow Birds immediately into a 

 thick covert overgrown with rank underbrush, as they will give 

 forth a better odor in ten, fifteen, or twenty minutes after set- 

 tling than they would at first. Some Birds, however, run the 

 very moment they have struck cover, and thus may be lost alto- 

 gether, as they move along pretty brisk when frightened, and 

 after a lapse of fifteen minutes may be a mile off from where 

 they pitched. 



Your Dogs will naturally or rather soon learn to hunt along 

 the sides of the fields adjoining cover, as Partridges do not 

 affect the middle of the fields except in portions of the country 

 where they are seldom or never hunted after. 



English Dogs, we are satisfied, from personal observation, 

 in fact, from actual experiment, for we have imported several, 

 cannot at first find our Partridges with the same facility that 

 our Dogs do ; and we might go further, and say there never 

 was an imported Dog over the age of two years that ever ac- 

 quired the art of finding the American Partridge equal to our 

 own breed of Pointers and Setters. 



We might enlarge considerably on this subject, but we have 

 already referred our readers to Youatt's work on the Doar, 

 wherein will be found all that is interesting and useful on this 

 head. 



