144 UPLAND SHOOTING. 



stray domestic cat; literally no shooting over dogs, no 

 netting, and very little trapping, the climate and the 

 laws of the land being well calculated to prevent market- 

 hnnting. The Cuban bird is, in some respects, different 

 from ours, bearing a close resemblance to the bird of the 

 pine-barrens of Georgia, being smaller than our local 

 bird, and of a deeper color, especially noticeable in the 

 male. He is strikingly red — so deep in this color that no 

 one fails to notice it. In all other respects he is the same 

 old Bob White. The hunting is done principally in the 

 morning. I usually stopped at 9, and never hunted 

 later than 10 a. m. In the Partido de Cabezas, where I 

 lived, the number of birds killed depended on the num- 

 ber I could use. In the fall, the best hunting is on the 

 cattle-ranches and old fields. By January the cane on 

 the plantations is pretty well cut off, and in February 

 and March the hunting there is simply unequaled, there 

 being just enough cover for the birds to lie well, and 

 nothing to obstruct the shooting. There is one method 

 of hunting, and quite a destructive one it is, in vogue 

 among the guajiros (peasants). As I have never seen it 

 in any other place, it may prove of interest. Nearly all 

 the plantations are divided by hedges, and these, in that 

 tropical climate, soon become impenetrable thickets of 

 briars and vines; the birds, of course, are found in abun- 

 dance in reach of this cover. The guajiro has ablack-and- 

 tan dog, or common fice, trained to run into the coveys 

 and bark. If the birds are near a hedge, they tree instead 

 of lighting on the ground. The dog gets under them, and 

 keeps up a continuous barking. The guajiro, armed with 

 a pole ten or twelve feet long, with a small wire snare at 

 the end, will often clean up an entire covey in a very few 

 minutes. ' ' 



Some time since I prepared numerous questions about 

 Bob Whites, which I had printed in circular form and 



