322 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 



of the lying on the inside. If there be a verge of tall 

 grove-like timber trees, with no underwood, for some dis- 

 tance, and then heavy coppice, they will probably have 

 alighted close within the edge of the bushes, and run a few 

 yards forward before squatting. 



If the wind be high, and they have entered the wood 

 before it, they will often fly quite on to the extreme lee- 

 ward side, particularly if it be the thickest portion, or if 

 it have a bushy skirt running out into meadow land or 

 stubbles, or again, if it have an old dry brush fence. 



Indeed, if at any part of the wood there be such a 

 fence, or if there be fallen trees with large prostrate tops, 

 these should always be looked to with much pains or cau- 

 tion. A low-flying bevy will often drop to them ; a run- 

 ning bevy will almost invariably stop in them ; and if 

 there be either ruffed grouse or hares in the wood, it 

 will be in such places. 



I must again here caution the young sportsman 

 against imagining that he has marked a bevy of quail, 

 because he has lost sight of them. All that he can do in 

 that case, is, judging by their flight, the state of the wind, 

 and the nature of the neighboring ground, to approximate 

 the spot for which they have made, and, by the aid of his 

 dogs, in due season to discover it. 



If he see them drop, that is another thing. Their 

 mode of doing so is unmistakable. Quail never dart 

 abruptly down, and very rarely, if ever, wheel round before 

 they alight, but gradually lower their flight until they are 

 close to the ground, when they throw themselves up with a 

 particular motion, bringing their feet and tails down first, 



