6138 



Scent. 



rience, to realise the perfect immobility with which a partridge will 

 often retain her seat on her nest. Not to mention the repeated 

 instances in which she has been known to sit until the scythe cut her 

 in two, I will only relate an incident of the kind which occurred 

 under my observation last year. I wanted a couple or two of rabbits, 

 and had taken my gun to a wood which clothed the lower part of a 

 somewhat craggy steep : after passing through the wood, I had gone 

 above the crags and walked along the wall, which served rather to 

 keep sheep and cattle from the precipice than as a boundary to 

 the wood. At one point it occurred to me to look over the wall, in 

 case a rabbit might be seen sitting within; I had stood for at least a 

 minute looking down over the wood and the country that lay below 

 in its beauty, when suddenly a partridge rose from under me, striking 

 my leg with its wings as it flew : on looking down without moving my 

 foot, I saw her nest with eleven eggs, and perceived that my shoe 

 must have been in actual contact with the bird. It may be interesting 

 to add — though not very relevant — that I believe she returned to her 

 nest and brought out her young ones safely, as 1 often saw a covey 

 during the season, corresponding in numbers, in the closest vicinity 

 to the position of the nest. 



Moreover, the utter stillness of the sitting bird may be, no doubt, 

 often aided in its efficacy towards preventing detection by the 

 additional circumstance that, from its situation, the nest, and with it 

 its occupant, is often more or less elevated above the common level 

 of the ground near it. I have often been struck by the fact that 

 scent rarely seems to descend. It may and often does rise (sometimes 

 to the height of four or five feet, and how much higher it is impossible 

 to say ; probably, under favorable circumstances, it continues to 

 ascend, until by continued dilution with the atmospheric air it ceases 

 to have any distinct or recognisable existence ; but rise to a certain 

 height it does), for I have seen my own pointer find and point game 

 from the summit of a heap of stones laid against a five-feet wall, 

 forming one side of a narrow lane ; and other analogous cases might 

 be adduced if it were necessary. Bat if a bird falls into a hedge or 

 low tree, and rests some four or five feet from the ground, it is 

 but rarely that the best-nosed dog obtains any intimation of the posi- 

 tion of the game, although he may pass and repass precisely under it. 

 I have, once or twice, under such circumstances, seen a pointer stop 

 as if attracted by a slight taint of scent, and once have seen him rise 

 up on his hind legs, as if under the impression that the game 

 was above him ; and my correspondent records a similar circum- ^ 



