86 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING. 
good sport as almost any of their family, for they fly 
rapidly and strongly, in a direct line. 
When insects and berries are abundant in autumn, the 
birds are so fat that they are too lazy to rise before the 
dog, but in winter, when they have to live on willow and 
spruce buds, cedar berries, and other meagre pabulum, 
they are wild and flush at long distances, and with an 
alarmed cry of kuk-kuk, dart to the shelter of coppices 
or shrubbery, if any are in sight. They roost in trees, 
when they have the opportunity, during the winter, and 
often keep to their perches all day in very cold weather. 
On such occasions they take but little notice of the 
sportsman even when he brings some of them tumbling 
down; but this is not always the case, for as soon as they 
hear the report of a gun they will frequently dart away, 
only to alight again a few hundred yards further on. 
There is no more sport in shooting them in the trees at 
such times than there would be in bagging a lot of barn- 
yard fowl, but when they get on the wing the matter is 
different, and a person then feels a keen sense of pleasure 
on seeing them strike the ground with a resonant thud. 
Sharp-tails keep in families until the commencement of 
cold weather, then form into large packs, and remain to- 
gether throughout the winter. 
When this. species takes wing, it rises with a loud and 
startling whirr until it reaches a certain altitude, and 
then flies straight ahead at arapid rate. It can saila 
long distance by merely expanding its wings, and when a 
large covey is in motion at the same time, this method 
of flight seems very graceful. When the birds settle, 
they commence cackling sociably to each other as soon as 
they are over their alarm, and sometimes continue it 
until long after dusk. In searching for them at any 
season of the year, a person may be almost sure of meet- 
ing them on broken ground, on the skirts of woods, and 
among the bushes that margin fields or streams. They 
