58 GAME-BIRDS AT HOME. 



could sec my friend on the hillside with half a 

 dozen grouse driving swiftly toward him. One 

 shot past him like an arrow feathered w^ith white 

 and brown, gone before he could raise his gun ; 

 another at the report of his first barrel went spin- 

 ning by with unruffled feather, with the rest roar- 

 ing beside him and over him, while he stood 

 shifting his gun from one to the other, and finally 

 emptied it with great success into a patch of sun- 

 shine among the trees after it had closed over 

 the last wide-spread tail. 



Probably the deepest love one acquires for this 

 bird is in threading the depths of the forest in 

 still-hunting. A more charming companion than 

 the grouse there makes it is hard to find. On 

 the warm still days of autumn, when you have to 

 move with great caution on account of the dry 

 leaves and twigs making so much noise to alarm 

 deer, this lovely bird is often around you from 

 morning till night. If careful you may often see 

 him, mounted on a log or low limb or even on 

 the ground, beat that mysterious drum that sends 

 so strange a thrill through the sportsman, and 

 makes so many wonder how it is done. And 

 when at dawn you thread the long colonnades of 



