QUAIL-SHOOTINQ IN THE WEST. 105 



when she has young ones. Up got one, and Mr. Ellis 

 killed it ; away went another, and I stopped it. Mr. 

 Ellis was greatly astonished, and did not know what 

 to make of it. I explained the matter, telling him 

 that if the dogs had been taken off to another part 

 of the field, ■ and kept there long enough for the 

 old scent to have exhaled from the ground and 

 passed away, they would have found the two 

 quail readily enough when brought back to the 

 place. The ground was so saturated with scent 

 that the dogs could not distinguish that of the 

 remaining birds, and could not put them up with- 

 out stumbling right on them. 1 have often seen 

 the same thing happen with a close-lying lot of 

 pinnated grouse in long prairie-grass. 1 do not 

 believe in the theory advanced by some that quail 

 or any other game-bird can withhold their scent so 

 as to prevent a good dog from winding them when 

 he comes near. I had fair sport in the South last 

 fall, principally at quail, round the cotton-fields, 

 but there seemed to bo a scarcity of game. There 

 was not one quail to a hundred which woidd have 

 been found in good situations in Illinois. I was in 

 Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee, 

 and nowhere was game in what we should call fair 

 plenty in the West. At Paris, Tennessee, they 



