and the Maritime Provinces. 379 



Not so with the partridge of New England, for given a certain number 

 of shots at these birds, say fifteen or thirty in a clay's gunning, no two of 

 them will be alike, and it is doubtful if in a whole season's shooting, any 

 two shots would be exactly similar, and in this lies the charm of the 

 sport, as the gunner must be always on the alert. 



Recent laws regulating the capture and sale of game in the State have 

 conduced to increase greatly the number of partridges, and with the excep- 

 tion of an occasional year like the present, when, during the season of 

 hatching the weather was very unfavorable, they are very abundant, and 

 the visiting sportsman, who possesses in a good degree the qualifications 

 alluded to, is sure of satisfactory sport in almost any section of the State. 



WOODCOCK- 



Some acquaintances of the writer in different parts of the country 

 consider (and there are doubtless many others who share this opinion) that 

 woodcock shooting is sport par excellence. The writer, himself, freely 

 admits that to be on a birch hillside of a sharp, frosty morning, when a 

 flight is on, affords sport of the grandest type, and it is indeed a mooted 

 question whether the enchanting whistle of the golden cock or the startling 

 whir of the partridge appeals more strongly to a sportsman's nerves. 



In any event, New Hampshire offers the charms of either; for good 

 cock-shooting is found in very many parts of the State, both as to native 

 bred and flight birds. 



Of course, woodcock, being necessarily restricted to certain kinds of 

 cover in both their breeding and halting places, must be sought in their 

 favorite haunts. But there are plenty of good breeding grounds that fur- 

 nish very good shooting on local birds, and numerous hills and swales of 

 more or less extent throughout the entire southern and central sections 

 of the State have every characteristic of cover and bottom favorable for 

 arresting and holding the northern birds in their autumnal flight. 



QUAIb. 



As has already been hinted, quail are very unreliable birds so far 

 north as central New Hampshire, by reason of their being so often entirely 

 exterminated during severe winters when snows are deep. They are 

 chiefly dependent on seeds for their food supply, and a deep snow com- 

 pletely buries the plants on whose dry seeds they subsist, and they become 

 emaciated and easily succumb to the extreme cold, which they would 

 readily withstand when in good flesh. 



Every spring, quail are purchased in the west and brought here by 

 public-spirited sportsmen of the State. They are liberated in favorable 

 spots for breeding, and the progeny of these birds are frequently found in 



