Scent. 



6139 



stance. On the other hand, on " the first" of last September I shot at 

 a bhd which I had marked after wounding it at a previous discharge : 

 it fell about fifty or sixty yards from me into a thick hedge, at about 

 four feet above the ground. My idea was that it had not fallen dead and 

 would run : my dog, to whose point I had killed it, saw it fall as well 

 as myself, and on my advancing after I had recharged, hastened 

 directly to the spot ; I had marked it to within a foot, but no scent 

 could be obtained on either side of the fence, and though I looked 

 into the part upon which it had fallen I could not see it. At last, on 

 looking through the hedge from the other side, I saw a dark object 

 suspended, which proved to be the partridge, quite dead. And 

 again, much later in the season, I brought down two at one shot; one 

 fell into a hedge not far distant, dead, and hung suspended by a leg ; 

 the other which fell to the shot proved to be shot in the head, but not 

 disabled, and, on the approach of the dog, took wing again and flew 

 in the wild, bewildered way, mentioned in my article on the partridge 

 (Zool. 6012), though not to a great distance. After securing the latter 

 T turned to bag the other ; my dog passed close underneath it, 

 caught, as it seemed, a slight, uncertain w^hifT of scent — for he 

 paused for a moment — but being unable to make anything further of 

 it, went on again. If he had only looked up, the bird hung plainly 

 visible, and within reach if he had simply raised himself upon 

 his hind legs. 



I have now only to notice the period of duration in scent ; 

 and here again, I am much indebted to the kind courtesy of 

 the sportsman above referred to : " The duration of scent," he 

 says, " appears to depend mainly on the animals pursued ; for 

 instance, the scent of the fox may be run hard after a lapse of ten 

 minutes; whereas, that of the foumart " after fifteen or twenty 

 hours. But it must be remembered, that the work of the foumart is 

 during the night, and consequently would come under the head of 

 " drag;" as of the fox, "on trail;" as of the hare, which can be 

 owned after the above period : not so when found and pursued during 

 the day, as, say, half-an-hour would stay proceedings altogether." 

 This statement is a very interesting one : any one who has observed 

 the tracks left by the hare, the rabbit, the fox, the stoat, the fonlmart, 

 in their movements during the night, must have been struck by the 

 evidences afforded by the tracks of deliberateness of motion on 

 the part of the animal traced. It is at once apparent, that every few 

 yards the creature paused : in the case of the rabbit or hare, a single 



