696 
FOREST AND STREAM 
December, 1918 
your head like sparks from under a black¬ 
smith’s hammer. The shooting is now dif¬ 
ficult, for you will have to turn rapidly on 
your heel as the bird passes over you, and 
drop your line of sight upon him while he 
is only momentarily in sight. 
If you had a fair day yesterday, but after 
a long spell of wet weather, and you re¬ 
turned home last night in a clear, cold, 
quiet air, you may expect to see the 
sunshine of to-morrow sparkling in the 
hoar-frost which covers the ground and 
all the herbage. Tarry at home till the 
sun has nearly melted the ice off the 
meadows, for you will get nothing but 
wet legs by tramping the fields while 
the ground is iced and while the birds 
are yet huddled and have not spread 
their scent. Some sportsmen suppose 
that Bob White has the power of vol¬ 
untarily retaining his scent, and thus in 
time of danger eludes the dogs. But it 
is more probable that when crouching 
with their wings closely pressed against 
their bodies so as to squeeze themselves 
into the smallest compass, this act, no 
doubt, causes a diminution in the emis¬ 
sion of their effluvia. 
f 
W HEN the dogs are seeking the 
coveys, let them range widely. 
When they stand the covey, do 
not exhaust yourself with haste in 
reaching them, but approach leisurely 
and quietly. When the covey springs be 
very quick, but very, very steady, and 
do not fire until you are sure of your 
aim. Remember that it is your left arm 
and wrist that direct your gun; so grasp 
it well forward on the fore-end, and not 
near the breech, as some do. You will 
thus be able to give your gun that quick 
and firm motion which is indispensable 
to skill in “snap-shooting”; and all 
shooting at Bob White is of that kind. 
To become a successful shot at Bob 
White, the sportsman should bear in 
mind that Bob, immediately after he has 
sprung, flies with a velocity which prob¬ 
ably exceeds that of any other bird; and 
also that, unless fairly hit, he can carry 
off a number of pellets. Bob White is 
a tough and hardy little fellow, and the 
true sportsman, always a humane man, 
will remember this and endeavor to kill 
him outright. Often a bird will fly two or 
three hundred yards, though mortally 
wounded. It is the duty of all sportsmen 
carefully to watch the flight of birds he has 
shot at, and his experience of the nature of 
their flight will tell him if the bird has been 
struck. If he concludes that he has been, 
then it is his bounden duty to bring that 
bird to bag, and that right quickly. 
Rules for shooting are of value, and di¬ 
rections founded on theory may serve to 
inform the beginner why he misses, and 
thus show him the way to improvement in 
his marksmanship; but no matter how well 
we may know how the shooting should be 
done, to do it is an art which can be at¬ 
tained only by the assiduous cultivation and 
development of certain peculiar natural 
gifts. This takes practice and patience. 
The beginner who, out of three shots, 
can bring one Bob White to bag, need not 
be discouraged or ashamed; with sufficient 
practice he may one day kill one out of two 
birds shot at. The sportsman who takes 
his chances in the open and in covert on 
all birds which offer a probability of suc¬ 
cess to his skill, and who, the season 
through, brings to his bag three out of five 
birds fired at, is an accomplished sports¬ 
man. If he can make three successful shots 
out of four, he is a phenomenal marksman. 
The best wing-shot I ever hunted with 
has written for me the following state¬ 
ment, which coming from a sportsman who 
has had unusual opportunities in hunting 
Bob White, in North Carolina, cannot fail 
to be of interest to all sportsmen: 
“I find, on referring to my record con¬ 
taining the number of birds killed, that the 
average is but little over three birds 
brought to bag from each covey flushed. 
When it is remembered—that the usual 
number of birds found in a covey runs 
from ten to eighteen, it will give some idea 
of the difficulties to be overcome, and 
the large proportion of birds that escape 
even with good shooting, as the same rec¬ 
ord shows that seventy-three out of every 
hundred birds shot at were brought to bag. 
This record, extending over four years, and 
running up into the thousands of birds 
killed, gives very reliable data to base cal¬ 
culations upon.” 
The shooting of Bob White demands such 
quick action in handling the gun and such 
long tramps to discover his retreats, that 
light guns are in order. A pound more in 
weight will be felt in the afternoon of a 
long day’s hunt, and the rapidity and ease 
with which a light and short gun can be 
handled makes it very efficient in snap¬ 
shooting in covert. A twelve-gauge seven 
pound gun, of twenty-eight inch barrels, 
carrying one ounce of No. 8 shot and three 
drams of powder, or a sixteen-gauge of six 
pounds weight and twenty-six-inch barrels, 
charged with seven-eighths of an ounce 
of shot and two and three-quarters 
dram of powder, is to my liking. It 
may also be said that the easy handling 
little twenty-gauge with its slim grace¬ 
ful tubes and its three-quarters of an 
ounce of No. 8 shot propelled by two 
and one-quarters drams of one of the 
nitro powders is becoming more and 
more popular among good sportsmen 
who are devoted to this most enjoyable 
of field sports. 
If after a day of successful shoot¬ 
ing over a considerable area, the sports¬ 
man will count the number of cock 
and hen birds which have fallen to his 
aim he will find the former always 
outnumbering the latter. The exact ra¬ 
tio I do not know. I have but once 
separated them; then, in a bag of forty, 
I found twenty-four cocks to sixteen 
hens which ratio may be average. 
The average weight of Bob White 
varies considerably with the nature of 
his feeding-ground, the weather pre¬ 
ceding the time when he is shot, and 
the age of the bird. Probably six and 
three-quarters ounces is a fair average 
weight. In Southern Maryland, I have 
shot a few cock-birds which weighed 
eight and one-quarter ounces, and one 
even as high in weight as eight ounces 
and three-quarters. Fifty birds shot in 
the middle of North Carolina, last De¬ 
cember, averaged seven ounces. Those 
birds were cocks and hens, old and 
young, just as they came to bag. 
Bob White is sometimes partly migra¬ 
tory in his habits. It is said that he has 
“a running season” in October, when, 
joining a pack, he leaves the region of 
his birth and travels on foot in a south¬ 
erly and easterly direction till he reaches 
the borders of streams and bays, where 
he may remain till November, when he 
returns to his former haunts. These pil¬ 
grimages are particularly annoying to 
field trial associations who sometimes find 
their carefully protected preserves bare of 
birds upon the eve of some important race, 
but whether these movements take place in 
response to some instinct or as a result of 
changes in food or climatic conditions has 
never been decided. That they do take 
place, however, all agree, and during his 
travels it would be useless to hunt him, for 
he then runs with great rapidity before the 
dog, and will not take wing. 
The energetic Bob White, if protected 
by the enforcement of judicious game laws, 
will thrive in cultivated lands, though civ¬ 
ilization rob them of their natural feeding 
grounds, and will continue to test the 
gamecraft and marksmanship of future 
generations. He is destined to remain the 
game bird of America, and he is worthy of 
it; for there is none that has such extended 
range in his feeding-grounds and coverts. 
Everywhere he is known as Bob White 
