SHOOTING THE PRAIRIE GROUSE 399 
terminate a brood, and in many places, a few weeks 
after the shooting season had begun, there were prac- 
tically no grouse left on the prairie. When, however, 
the shooting season begins in October, or even No- 
vember, as is now sometimes the case, the birds are 
shy, scarcely lie to a dog, and are strong of wing. 
To kill them in great numbers is not an easy matter 
under such conditions. 
PINNATED GROUSE SHOOTING 
To-day there are few places, except in Texas, where 
much pinnated grouse shooting may be had, but thirty 
or forty years ago things were very different. Then 
men would start out on foot, and after two or three 
hours of shooting would return to their homes bending 
under a heavy backload of birds. Even later than 
that, great shooting was to be had in Illinois, Iowa, 
Minnesota and Nebraska. One scarcely dare say how 
large the bags used to be, but they were unquestion- 
ably large. Men hunted from wagons, carrying relays 
of dogs, with abundant water to keep them fresh at 
all times. Driving from farm to farm, and from vil- 
lage to village, they covered an immense area of ter- 
ritory and killed a great number of birds. In fact, at 
one time, during the first days of amateur photography, 
it was common to see photographs of such wagons 
hung around with game, and with the well-armed gun- 
ners and their dogs standing near. Happily, the taste 
for such pictures is slowly changing, though the big- 
