

FOREST AND STREAM. 





 G@AMIE RAG AND GUN 


My Friend the Partridge 
Memories of New 
Bys Ss. 41. 
England Shooting 
Hammond 
(Continued from page 897.) 
HAVE been afield with many hundreds of 
sportsmen, but have yet to meet the one who 
can resist the temptation to shoot a grouse 
Even I myself must confess 
I 
sitting in a tree. 

that more than once the sight of that living 
picture has tempted me with a force that I 
was unable to resist. Not many times, how- 
ever—perhaps a dozen all told—have I com- 
mitted this sin—if sin it be—for there are several 
very excellent reasons why my victims in this 
line have been few. First, it is extremely diffi- 
cult to locate even so large a bird as this, though 
it may be sitting in plain view, with not a leaf 
or twig to hide its form; for it is a wise pro- 
vision of nature that all wild game appears to 
have the miraculous power of becoming invisible 
to mortal eyes, even when in plain view. In ad- 
dition to this, the partridge appears to know that 
it is perfectly safe so long as you do not see it, 
and it keeps a wary watch upon your movements, 
taking instant flight when it suspects that your 
eye has discovered its hiding place. So abrupt 
and often devious is the departure of the phan- 
tom, that the most expert shot, who is new to 
this business, is rarely successful in making proper 
connection. It has been a rule with me to shoot 
when such conditions obtain, and shoot very 
quickly, and many times have I got on to the un- 
known angle, greatly to my satisfaction and much 
to the wonder of my companions. 
There is still another accomplishment that this 
bird has recently learned that is well worthy of 
record. I have obtained within four 
years abundant proof that our preternaturally 
wise and wary friend has discovered that the dog 
the past 
whistle means trouble, and to avoid this he at 
once takes flight as soon as the piercing sound 
reaches his ear, leaving the discomfited hunter to 
wonder why the dog can make nothing of the 
apparently fresh scent. I had suspected some- 
thing of this, but did not give the matter much 
thought until one day, when I was working out 
open country for quail, I came within some two 
hundred yards of a favorite grouse cover and 
decided to investigate it. 
Blowing the whistle for the dog, I turned 
toward the cover just in time to see a noble cock 
bird burst from the center of it and make a long 
flight to a patch of alders. The conduct awak- 
ened my slumbering suspicions that the whistle 
was to blame in such cases, and as the ground 
was favorable, I determined to investigate the 
matter further. Crossing to a knoll about two 
hundred yards from his place of refuge, I again 
blew the whistle, and was not greatly surprised 
to see this wary bird again take wing and make 
for a dense thicket four or five hundred yards 
away. Now I had had lots of trouble in that 
place, and in order to prevent the bird from 
causing me grief in the tangled thicket, I went 
around to the edge some distance above the bird, 
when I gave him another call with the whistle, to 
which he instantly responded, and greatly to my 
satisfaction flew straight across the open to the 
far point of a birch knoll. This knoll was about 
forty yards in width at the end nearest me, run- 
ning some hundred yards and tapering gradually 
to the point. There was no cover for half a mile 
beyond the point, and the bird must take a course 
along the birch thicket to reach any cover, so I 
took up a position at the end of the knoll near 
the center, and gave him the whistle for the last 
time. To prove my suspicion to be well founded, 
he again rose, and it was with deep satisfaction 
that I saw him coming my way, and in a few 
seconds I was smoothing out his ruffled plum- 
age and telling him in the most impressive lan- 
guage that I could muster that he would rise to 
side of the happy 
different 
the whistle never more this 
hunting ground. There 
tricks and dodges that these birds will resort to 
are so many 
when one has them in a corner, where it is seem- 
ingly impossible for them to escape, that one is 
lost in wonder at the intelligence displayed as 
by some maneuver least expected, a bird is out 
of danger with not a feather harmed. 
There is a favorite cover among the Berkshire 
Hills that a friend and I shot for 
several years. A portion of this cover is a wide 
strip of alders along a small stream between 
Upon one side 
have over 
two high and very steep hills. 
there is open ground about twenty 
width, with a hedge of hazel in the center some 
ten feet in width, extending about a hundred 
yards. Nearly every time we visit the place a 
partridge flushes from the strip of hazel before 
we'‘are within two gunshots of her and climbs 
straight in the air to the top of the hill and safety, 
We 
put up with this treatment on several occasions 
without and rather admired the per- 
formance, but finally it became monotonous. We 
held a council of war, and after considerable de- 
liberation, we decided upon a course that would 
My companion went 
yards in 
for it is almost impossible to follow her. 
protest, 
surely outgeneral the bird. 
around at the foot of the opposite hill beyond 
the head of the strip of hazel, where he crossed 
over and took position where the bird must give 
him a chance. When he was in place I sent on 
the dog and followed him with perfect confidence 
that there would be no more of this exasperating 
nonsense, for my companion was a sure shot, and 
The 
dog had gone but a short distance along the hazel 
thicket, when I heard the bird rise nearly at the 
both of us had already counted the bird. 
upper end, and soon saw her over the top of the 
thicket, going in the right direction, and I knew 
she was our meat. My companion stood facing 
me, but when the bird was within ten feet of him, 
he turned around and brought his gun into posi- 
tion, intending to give it to her after she had 
passed him, but he never had a chance to pull 
trigger, for that blessed bird no sooner caught 
sight of him than she pitched down to the ground 
not twenty feet beyond him, alighting under the 
shelter of a big stone, when she ran for her life 
until at a 
and was 
brought 
safe distance, when she again took wing 
We 
we 
soon over the hills and far away. 
that but 
always call it forty-eight, for we are both agreed 
that we had thrice the fun and real enjoyment out 
of the bird in the hazel thicket that we did with 
all the others. 
home sixteen birds day, 
Many years ago there was a noble cock grouse 
that made his home in a dense thicket that bor- 
dered a bog meadow. The bird died long ago 
probably from old age, as I do not believe that 
any one ever got a shot at him. I certainly did 
not, although I tried my best for it for several 
How that bird 
No sooner did he hear the footsteps 
of hunter or dog than he would run at his best 
fly to the 
opposite side of the cover, and so persistently did 
many times each season. 
run! 
years, 
could 
speed a long distance and then rise anc 

he follow these tactics that several of his 
most 
ardent followers became disgusted and left him to 
his fate; but I stuck to him and laid more plans 
for his destruction than would have brought to 
erief scores of ordinary birds. I once enlisted 
a company of six volunteers for the purpose of 
We started out 
with high hopes that at last we hac 
putting an end to the business. 
our very 

foxy friend at a disadvantage, and that victory 
Arriving near the 
silently advanced to their allotted stations 
was ours. cover, my men 
while 
I awaited the proper time when I sent on the dog. 
He soon struck the trail of our fleet-footed friend, 
short time I heard the f his 
and im a patter of 
footsteps upon the dry leaves, and noted with 
satisfaction that he was going straight toward the 
center of the line of outposts. I then obliqued to 
the right, and was soon at my chosen stand in a 
little opening by the bog meadow, where I could 
cut off his retreat in case he should decide to 
After the battle 
and we had come together to take account otf 
and that 
would-be victim ran within a few yards of one of 
come in my direction. was over 
stock compare notes, I learned our 
the sentinels and stopped, but the cover was so 
dense that he could not be seen, and when next 
heard from this contumacious bird was running 
for his life the other way. This course brought 
him straight to me, and as I heard him coming, 
I knew he was mine, and mentally hugged myself 
In a 
into the opening not 
in delight at the success of our plan. few 
seconds he came twenty 
feet distant, still putting his best foot foremost; 
but he had taken but a few steps before he caught 
sight of me, when he moderated his break-neck 
speed to a stately walk, spreading out his tail and 

