324 MANUAL FOE YOUNG SPOETSMEN. 



begin to call, and there seem no more fresh bevies to be 

 found. Then follow up those which have been flushed 

 during the morning, either to the precise spots into which 

 they have been marked, or as nearly as can be judged to 

 the place, and proceed to beat for them with the utmost 

 care and patience, picking up bird after bird, and never 

 sparing to turn and return, if it were a dozen times, until 

 every quail has been accounted for. 



In this part of the sport, if the country be well stocked, 

 it will be hard fortune, indeed, if one do not fall in with 

 fresh bevies; which, for the most part, lie up during the 

 basking time of the day in precisely the same ground to 

 which they fly for shelter when disturbed ; and if this be, 

 as it almost invariably will in rolling country, where the 

 bevies are found on the upland slopes and hill-sides, in the 

 swamps and hollows, it will bo bad luck, indeed, if a good 

 sprinkling of woodcock and a few ruffed grouse, do not 

 come in to swell the bag. 



The quail is, probably, the hardest bird in the world 

 to kill quickly, certainly and cleanly. He gets under way 

 with the speed of light ; before the wind he goes like a 

 ballet from a rifle, when he has once fairly got on his 

 wings ; he flies as fast in the thickest covert, which he 

 affects, as he does out of it ; he takes a heavy blow, and 

 that planted exactly in the right place, to bring him down ; 

 and, above all, he has a habit of carrying away his death- 

 wound, flying as if unhurt, until his life leaves him in mid 

 air. 



He has another knack, which disappoints the sportsman 

 of many a snap shot, when not pointed, of lying close 



