Sentence:  … while at the same moment, whir-r-r! up sprung a bevy of twenty quail, at least, startling me for the moment by the thick whirring of their wings, and <WSD>skirring</WSD> over the underwood right toward Archer. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  To leave hastily; to flee, especially with a whirring sound