SHOOTING THE WOODS GROUSE. 
RUFFED GROUSE SHOOTING. 
Dwelling in many sorts of country, sometimes, as 
in the East, where it is constantly pursued, cunning to 
the last degree, and practicing every stratagem; or 
again, in the wild regions, dreading only its natural 
enemies, and thus fearless and bold, and trusting 
wholly to strength of wing, the ruffed grouse is killed 
in many ways and under varying conditions. Where 
it is ignorant of firearms or of the danger from man, 
it permits half a dozen shots to be fired at it at close 
range, or sometimes may even be noosed from its perch 
on a limb by a bit of string tied to the end of a pole. 
A graphic account of ruffed grouse shooting in a 
region where they had been little disturbed, yet were 
not wholly tame, was contributed to Forest and Stream 
many years ago by that charming writer and good 
sportsman, Mr. T. S. Van Dyke. In those days ruffed 
grouse were abundant in the region referred to, as, 
in fact, they have been up to comparatively recent times 
in that country, as well as in certain sections of Michi- 
gan, where, within only a few years, we have heard 
of from twenty-five to thirty birds being killed in a 
day by two guns. We give the substance of Mr. Van 
Dyke’s account as follows: 
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