QUAILS. 219 
chance for making a bag. The dogs were sent to beat 
up some bushes, and they were not there long before they 
flushed a bevy which flew in our direction. I was on the 
right, so I selected the outer bird on that side, and 
after grassing it, I fired at the bird next to it and brought 
that down also. My companion was equally successful, 
he having bagged both outer birds on the left. When 
we had picked them up he exclaimed: 
“‘That’s the way to shoot in company; you take the 
birds on the right, I, those on the left. If you take my 
advice you'll never shoot wildly into the middle of a bevy, 
because you are more likely to wound than to kill.” 
I promised to remember hisadvice. We then resumed 
our trudging, but we had not gone far ere another bevy 
rose before us. We again counted with both barrels, 
and this made my companion so enthusiastic that he 
shouted, ‘‘ Hurrah, for our side. We're in luck, though 
it must hurt the feelings of quail awfully to be pelted 
with shot in this way. It can’t be nice for them.” I 
nodded assent, as I was too busily engaged in watching 
the dogs at work to enter into conversation. The ani- 
mals found the birds so disinclined to flush that they 
became excited, and rushing into the thicket, they routed 
a bevy, which flew to the leeward. The remainder of 
the party scored on these, as the birds flew low and di- 
rectly over their heads. The dogs were rated for their 
conduct, but this did not have much effect on them, for 
they again worked excitedly, owing to the habit the birds 
had of running before them or doubling on their tracks 
like hares. While we were watching this coursing match, 
the son of the farmer at whose house we were stopping, 
arrived on the scene with an old muzzle-loader, and 
taking aim at a bevy which were huddling on the ground 
near some bushes, bagged eight of them. He seemed to 
be highly delighted with his pot shot, but my companion 
was not, for he rated him roundly for firing at birds on 
