FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Feb. 27, 1909. 
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beautiful point, with head well forward, tail 
straight and stiff, and leg gracefully lifted. For 
a moment I stood astounded at the transforma¬ 
tion ; then I walked up briskly. Fido crawled 
a dozen steps swiftly, with belly to the ground, 
evidently following a running bird, then leaped 
forward, turned toward me and fell to a statue 
of stone. As I stepped up a dozen half grown 
quail sprang up around me with a fluttering of 
young wings, but the whirr of the parent birds 
followed and I started the day with a double. 
The dog picked them up gingerly and deposited 
them in my hand without mussing a feather, then 
off at a gallop, and before long another point. 
This time it was a full grown covey and I shot 
without waiting for the old birds, again scor¬ 
ing with both barrels. The entire lot settled 
“There is a nice breeze outside,” he said. 
“The scent ought to be good. Let’s take the 
dogs we didn’t use this morning and make a 
turn. We can change again at four and have 
them both fresh for to-morrow.” 
All hands agreed and I tied Fido up, a pro¬ 
cess he submitted to meekly until he saw us 
ready to depart; then he suddenly rose on his 
hind legs and throwing himself forward fell 
with his whole weight on the leather strap, which 
snapped like a thread. Before I could reach 
him he had rushed out into the open despite my 
shouts and stood waiting for me on his haunches 
at the entrance of the stubble. His owner hav¬ 
ing asked me not to attempt administering any 
corrections, I had to swallow my wrath and tie 
up Pit instead. 
many times. When we met at the keeper’s, I 
boasted seventy-six birds to my gun, or nearly 
double what either of the three others had shot. 
The return home under the starry canopy of 
a perfect Italian sky and the delicious meal that 
awaited us are very pleasant pages in my book 
of memories. They were evidently too good to 
last. During the night a belated “fattorino” was 
discussing with the proprietor of the hotel the 
advisability of waking me to deliver a telegram 
that called me back to Rome. They decided in 
favor of letting me sleep—the good, simple folk 
—and I found the scribbled message under my 
door when I rose at 3 A. M. to prepare for the 
fray. There was no possibility of excuse. I 
simply had to get back, so the next train steamed 
out of Avezzano with me on board it somewhat 
GENERAL VIEW OF THE VALLEY. . . 
' Tile Lake of Fucino at one time covered the low ground, but has been drained. 
along the edge of a brier-grown ditch. I started 
toward them, but on seeking Fido I found him 
pointing again and the fun came so thick there¬ 
after that I never got to them at all. By 10 
o’clock my cartridges had given out, while I 
was still in the same bit of stubble, and I made 
my way back to the cottage. Del Vaso came in 
with Ranaldi and his friend and inquired whether 
I had found a quail mine or an invulnerable 
covey. 
“I shot forty-four,” I said, passing the last 
one into the basket. 
“Forty-four in that little corner in which we 
didn’t put up more than a dozen birds?” in¬ 
quired Ranaldi. 
“Yes, and I might have had fifty had not my 
ammunition given out.” 
He whistled in surprise and then looked at 
Fido. “What will you take for the animal ?’’ he 
asked abruptly. 
“He’s not mine,” I had t’o admit. 
“Well, you tell his owner that if he will take 
five hundred francs for him [a high figure in 
Italy for an unpedigreed dog] I’ll buy him at 
once.” 
We all had lunch together and then sat around 
spinning yarns until about 2 o’clock, when Del 
Vaso rose. 
Ranaldi now suggested that we skirt the canals, 
as the birds would naturally seek the coolest 
spots during the heat of the day. Fido worked 
nicely for a while and flushed more birds than 
the others, but we eventually came to a hemp 
field along the middle of which ran a wide strip 
of luxuriant potato plants, and no coaxing or 
scolding would induce the beast to stay by the 
ditch. He ambled off to the potato patch and 
on reaching it, fell to a point. I had to follow 
him then, and in his usual perfect way he cir¬ 
cled a bird and headed it toward me. It was 
lying so close I had difficulty in flushing it and 
I found after shooting it that it was a flight 
bird. Their legs are always clean and white. 
All attempts to return to the ditch were frus¬ 
trated by Fido’s pigheadedness, and having learn¬ 
ed by experience that he generally ended in 
being right, I let him have his way. That dog 
knew his business, and knew it thoroughly. 
Whatever the reason, quail undoubtedly prefer 
the shade of thick potato plants to ditches. 
While my companion only shot spasmodically, I 
kept up a running fire. As the air cooled, Fido 
left the potatoes for the edge of the cornfields, 
and then toward sunset he took to the stubble 
again. The lessons he taught me that day I 
have remembered well and profited by them 
ill tempered, but promising myself another visit 
to the erstwhile lake in the very near future. 
Herbert Reeder. 
Western Pennsylvania Game Association 
It is reported from Pittsburg that within a 
few days application will be made—mainly by 
members of the Pittsburg Athletic Association— 
for a charter for the Western Pennsylvania 
Game Preserve Association. The plans include 
a game preserve of at least 5,000 acres in the 
mountains of Western Pennsylvania. On this 
preserve special attention is to be given to the 
propagation of game and fish. Special efforts 
will be made to rear the quail, while English 
pheasants will be brought in and bred in con¬ 
finement. . Lakes are to be made and stocked and 
all the waters on the preserve will be devoted 
to the breeding of trout and other game fish. 
While the plans of the association are as yet 
in embryo there is an opportunity here for a 
great work in behalf of this State. 
All the game laws of the United States and 
Canada, revised to date and noxv in force, are 
given in the Game Laws in Brief. See adv. 
