176 WILD FOWL SHOOTING. 



could more fully tell his secret longings. vVhat a com- 

 plete transformation in my companion ! Before the cry 

 of the quail, he stood in the swampy ground, cautious, 

 immovable and on the alert, a perfect retriever. And 

 now, after he finds that the utmost freedom is allowed 

 him to scent, to point, to find the gamest little bird that 

 ever spread wings, he springs forward, and with impet- 

 uous bound, clears bush and ditch, while ever and 

 anon, he looks joyfully back as if to thank me for the 

 pleasure or to chide me for moving so slowly. One of 

 these halcyon days is so fresh in my mind, that I can- 

 not resist the temptation to tell what Don and I saw, 

 when the whistling quail coaxed us from our decoys. 



The dim. gray light of approaching day 

 Warns the hunter to arise and not delay; 

 For in the stubble, bushes or fence of rail, 

 He will find the happy, vociferous quail. 



The quail is semi-domestic in its habits. It loves civ- 

 ilization, and there is no place it likes so well ais the 

 sparsely-fettled country, invaded by a few settlers or 

 small villages, where the certain indications of rural life 

 are shown by fields of wheat, barley, buckwheat, and 

 the small clearings of the hardy pioneer. Around such 

 places they live and rear their young. The female, 

 with maternal instinct, seeks the place to rear her 

 brood. She is a " squatter " in the true sense of the 

 word. When she has found a place suitable for the 

 comfort of her expected family, and for her lord and 

 master a home, she pre-empts the land and settles upon 

 it ; and the male with his life will see that her home- 

 stead rights are protected. There is no establishment 

 of this homestead by metes and bounds, as necessity re- 

 quires in human laws but the divine law gives them a 



