THE SHARP-TAILED GROUSE. 79 



Mile after mile of prairie stretches away upon 

 their backs, and around their feet lie pockets and 

 benches of smooth land on which oak openings 

 stretch their orchardlike expanse ; the whole so 

 suggestive of grouse, quail, deer, squirrels, and 

 hares, with elk, antelope, buffalo, and bears, that 

 one can hardly wait for daylight. Where do 

 you find such a combination as this? Nowhere 

 now, I fear; but time was when the western part 

 of Wisconsin could in places show the prettiest 

 combination of prairie and meadow with upland, 

 bluff and brooks, timber, game and fish, the 

 Creator ever made. 



The rose-blossom business has spoiled it, but 

 it is not many years since much of it lay in all 

 its native beauty ; and though the elk and the 

 antelope had gone with the buffalo to where the 

 white man was scarcer, the other wild tenants of 

 the hills and dales were about as plenty as ever. 



In the early days of Minnesota the sharp-tailed 

 grouse was the prevailing variety, giving place, as 

 the country was settled, to the pinnated grouse; 

 but in the eastern part of Buffalo County, Wis- 

 consin, the sharp-tail remained in abundance 

 long after settlement had reached the stage that 



