When coveys have warning of danger, and wish to evade detection, they will conceal themselves from their enemies, in a most magical manner, by a singular concerted action, seemingly, withholding their “scent,” so it is often impossible for the best dogs to detect them, even in the most favorable cover. It is quite amusing to witness the changes that come over the amateur sportsman when he fails to put up his birds. He knows where they are, at least he thinks he does, for he “marked them down” in the meadow of short grass within a few yards of a stump or tree. Then, it is such a commentary on his dogs, for he knows they are all right--never better, truer noses; still they go over and over, round and round, without winding a bird, or coming to a point. There! that dog has flushed a bird! Now he is assured the whole covey are within twenty feet of that spot; and he renews his search, and keeps his dogs going over and over the same locality, until both dogs and gunner, disgusted, quit the place. How they got away, and where they all went to, and why that single bird remained where the covey went down, and why the dogs did not point that bird, all passed through the mind of the hunter, as he marched on in search of better luck. The amateur perhaps meets his experienced friend, to whom he relates his disappointment, and who in reply proposes to return to the meadow of the “marked down” covey. After a time they do so, and every dog at once winds his bird; and each come to point--these are flushed and shot at. The dogs are made to move cautiously, and again the trio stand, each having a bird under point. This is repeated until every bird has gone the gauntlet.