420 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 
now sailing, he kept on his course till he disappeared 
behind a hill a mile away. 
“T was, of course, greatly chagrined by his escape, but 
knowing that, given one grouse, it is usually not difficult 
to find another, I commenced looking about for the mate 
of the one I had lost. My search was not a long one; 
almost immediately she rose from under a sage brush 
with a noise like a whirlwind, not to fly a mile before 
stopping to look around, as the cock had done, but, by a 
fortunate shot, falling helpless to the ground. No deer- 
stalker ever felt more triumphant enthusiasm while 
standing over the prostrate body of a buck, or fisher- 
man when the silvery sides of a salmon sparkled in his 
landing-net, than I felt as I picked up this great, and to 
me, unknown bird. I afterward ranged the hillsides 
for hours, with more or less success, waging a war on 
these birds, which I found to be quite abundant, but 
very strong-winged, and difficult to kill. I repeatedly 
flushed them not ten yards from me, and, as they rose, 
poured my whole charge, right and left, into them, 
knocking out feathers, perhaps, but not killing the bird, 
which, in defiance of all my hopes and expectations, 
would carry off my shot to such a distance that I would 
not follow him, even did I know he would never rise 
again. Here, as elsewhere, I found these birds con- 
fined to the vicinity of the sage bushes, from under 
which they usually spring. 
“A few days later, on the shores of Wright and 
Rhett lakes, we found them very abundant, and killed 
all we cared to. A very fine male which I killed there 
