SHOOTING THE WOODS GROUSE 375 
bordering on audacity, permitting the shooter to pass 
close by, and flushing after he is some yards further 
onward. This wile is oftenest practiced after it has 
been flushed, marked down and pursued. Both man 
and dog are apt to pass it then, though they may fol- 
low in the exact line of flight. The shooter may hear 
the irritating roar of the bird’s wings behind him, on 
ground but a moment before passed over, or catch a 
shadowy glimpse as it dashes away from some tree- 
top. 
Owing to its short flights and its proneness to take 
a straight, or nearly straight line, the persistent shooter 
may be able to mark and flush the bird again and 
again. It sometimes, in repeated flights, returns to 
near the place where it was first found, and it always 
takes the flights so that ground and cover are to its 
advantage in avoiding danger. 
Once in a while a foolish bird will be found, which 
will do the very thing it ought not to do, commonly 
paying for the lapse with its life; so that if there is 
anything in the theory of heredity, the ruffed grouse 
should be uniformly of high capabilities, the fool birds 
being killed promptly, and never breeding. 
By far the greater part of the shooting is at close 
range, as it needs must be in thicket or woods, where 
the longest views are short, and obstructed by trees or 
ledges or the undergrowth or the hilly nature of the 
ground, where in the early season the view may not 
be greater than a few yards or feet, if the leaves have 
not fallen. 
