Ad4 BIRDS—PERDICIDZ:. 
trying circumstances, and the mode of leaving—all indicated an understanding, an edu- 
cation by command, how to act in time of great danger. 
The ability to evade the perception of the sharpest and most experienced dog, has been 
accounted for in various ways by sportsmen and authors; some claim that through 
fear they retain their scent by alighting and not moving after touching the ground, and 
compressing the plumage in a way to check the emanations. Others dexy most empha- 
tically that they posses the power to withhold the scent, and say the manifestations are 
accounted for by the scent being confined and covered up ; while others assert knowingly 
that the reason the dogs are unable to find the birds at the spot where they are seen to 
settle is they are not there to flush; that they ron away, and that after a given time 
will return to the place where the sportsman expected, but failed, to findthem. Iam 
satisfied, however, that ordinary observation and a little patience will convince anyone 
that these birds do possess the power, and do frequently exercise itin a way that deprives 
the dog of not only the ability to locate them by scent, but also of the entire knowledge 
of their presence; and that the birds appear to fully understand when they are in this 
relation to the dog. That they do not always ‘run away and come back again’ I have 
frequently tested to my entire satisfaction. A few years since, I flushed a covey of 
about one dozen birds and marked them down very correctly in some broom-corn 
stubble. My dog was beyond question, but Il was compelled to give them up without 
finding a bird. The cover was not heavy, and I put this down as possibly an instance 
where they had all escaped by running ‘like race horses.’ 
A short time after, about three inches of snow fell in the night, and in the morning I 
concluded to look after this covey a little farther. Tho dog came to a stand near the 
same place I found them a few days before. When flushed, they all took their old route, 
settling close together; I was soon there with the dog, and hunted the place over and 
over, but could not find even a track or imprinfin the unbroken snow. I now made 
several circles around the place, to render assurance doubly sure that the birds had not 
run away, and were at the point where saw them godown. Yes, the evidence was con- 
clusive. They were all there within ashori distance of each other. This was enough, I 
walked away and remained long enongh to quiet their fears, and then returned, and the 
dog made point after point until probably every bird was found, although not one had 
moved from the spot at which he touched the snow-covered ground. 
Quail shooting is the great field sport of the country. Itis by far the most exciting, 
as the bird is the most troublesome to follow up, and, when flushed, the most difficult 
to kill. It may have its faults, but when restricted by proper legislation, it has its 
benefits and advantages. While it diminishes the aggregate number of birds by sub- 
tracting from each covey, it seldom destroys the whole family, and in this way insures 
the preservation of an abundance to propagate another season. Wing shooting also 
draws from the destructive spoils of the pot-hunter and trapper, making the birds coy, 
suspicious, and not easily seen. True, thera is a possibility that the sportman with dog 
and gun may destroy a whole family unintentionally or by accident, for it once fell to 
my lot to be the author of a chapter of this kind. While riding along the road in a 
buggy with a friend, I discovered my dog on a stand near the road some distance in 
front, with nose and tail parallel to the line of fence. As I moved up, the birds rose by 
concert, in line along the fence, and I fired at the rear bird and for a few seconds saw 
nothing but smoke, then a wounded bird making his way on foot into a sorghum patch 
on the opposite side of the road, I attempted to intercept his passage but failed, and he 
escaped into the dense cover. Where the other birds were I did not yet know, for the 
smoke stocd at the muzzle so long it was impossible te seo a feather fall. My friend, 
