230 FRANK FORESTER’S FIELD SPORTS. 
This is not, however, by any means the difficulty to which I 
allude, as an old and steady shot is of course presumed to be 
proof against such tremors; and in the open field, under ordi¬ 
nary circumstances, ought, generally, to kill his double shot 
out of every bevy that is pointed and flushed within fifteen or 
twenty paces. 
The case becomes, however, altogether different after the 
birds have become scattered in coppice, or yet worse, in high 
saplings, the very thickest part of which they most affect, after 
being once disturbed. 
There is no bird, which I have ever seen that can in the 
slightest degree compare with the Quail for the rapidity with 
which it takes wing, and the short space which it requires to get 
under full headway. It really is wonderful to observe the ex¬ 
traordinary speed and command of wing with which this bird 
will dart through the most intricate and tangled brake, yet J 
have never seen a single instance of their flying foul of a tree 
or getting entangled in a thicket, as will sometimes happen to 
the Ruffed Grouse, and much more frequently to the European 
Pheasant. 
The Quail flies, as I have said, with extreme rapidity in a di¬ 
rect line, rather ascending for the most part, but rarely or 
never dodging and pitching to and fro like a Snipe or Wood¬ 
cock. It has a habit likewise if not pointed, of lying hard until 
you have passed it, and then flirting up behind your back; in 
which case your first intimation of its whereabout is the sharp 
whirr of its wing, and you must bestir yourself hastily indeed, 
yet coolly withal, and you must have the eye of instinct, and 
the nerve of steel, to cut him down handsomely under such cir¬ 
cumstances. 
It may be added to this catalogue of difficulties, that in flying 
from you, as the Quail does in a great majority of cases, he 
presents to the aim of the sportsman a vital centre little larger 
than a cent piece, with two radii formed by the slender pinions, 
in which small target four or five shot must be lodged to bring 
him down with any certainty; so that it will not appear 
