454 BIEDS — PEEDICIDJE. 



trying oircnmstances, and the mode of leaving — all indicated an nnderstaading, an edu- 

 cation by command, how to act in time of great danger. 



The ability to evade the perception of the sharpest and most experienced dog, has been 

 a-cconnted for in various ways by sportsmen and authors ; some claim that through 

 fear they retain their scent by alighting and not moving after touching the ground, and 

 compressing the plumage in a way to check the emanations. Others deny most empha- 

 tically that they posses the power to withhold the scent, and say the manifestations are 

 accounted for by the scent being confined and covered up ; while others assert knowingly 

 that the reason the dogs are unable to find the birds at the spot where they are seen to 

 settle is they are not there to flash ; that they rnn away, and that after a given time 

 will return to the place where the sportsman expected, but failed, to find them. I am 

 satisfied, however, that ordinary observation and a little patience will convince anyone 

 that these birds do possess the power, and do frequently exercise it in a way that deprives 

 the dog of not only the ability to locate them by scent, but also of the entire knowledge 

 of their presence ; and that the birds appear to folly understand when they are in this 

 relation to the dog. That they do not always ' run away and come back again ' I have 

 frequently tested to my entire satisfaction. A few years since, I flushed a covey of 

 about one dozen birds and marked them down very correctly in some broom-corn 

 stubble. My dog was beyond question, but I was compelled to give them up without 

 finding a bird. The cover was not heavy, and I put this down as possibly au instance 

 where they had all escaped by running 'like race horses.' 



A short time after, about three inches of soow fell in the night, and in the morning I 

 concluded to look after this covey a little farther. The dog came to a stand near the 

 same place I fonnd them 3 few days before. When flushed, they all took their old route, 

 settling close together ; I was soon there with the dog, and hunted the place over and 

 over, but conld not find even a track or imprint in the unbroken snow. I now made 

 several circles around the place, to render assurance doubly sure that the birds had not 

 run away, and were at the point where I saw them go down. Yes, the evidence was con- 

 clusive. They were all there within a short distance of each other. This was enough, I 

 walked away and remained long enough to quiet their fears, and then returned, and the 

 dog made point after point until probably every bird was found, although not one had 

 moved from the spot at which he touched the snow-covered ground. 



Qaail shooting is the great field sport of the country. It is by far the most exciting, 

 as the bird is the most troublesome to follow up, and, when flushed, the most difficult 

 to kill. It may have its faults, but when restricted by proper legislation, it has its 

 benefits and advantages. While it diminishes the aggregate number of birds by sub- 

 tracting from each covey, it seldom destroys the whole family, and in this way insures 

 the preservation of au abundance to propagate another season. Wing shooting also 

 draws from the destructive spoils of the pot-hunter and trapper, making the birds coy, 

 suspicious, and not easily seen. True, there is a possibility that the sportman with dog 

 and gun may destroy a whole family unintentionally or by accident, for it once fell to 

 my lot to be the author of a chapter of this kind. While riding along the road in a 

 buggy with a friend, I discovered my dog on a stand near the road some distance in 

 front, with nose and tail parallel to the line of fence. As I moved up, the birds rose by 

 concert, in line along the fence, and I fired at the rear bird and for a few seconds saw 

 nothing but smoke, then a wounded bird making his way on foot into a sorghum patch 

 on the opposite side of the road, I attempted to intercept his passage but failed, and he 

 escaped into the donee cover. Where the other birds were I did not yet know, for the 

 smoke stood at the muzzle bo long it was impossible to see a feather fall. My friend. 



