126 The Grouse Family 



scared grouse a quarter of a mile from cover can 

 go, and the ball caught him fair in the back when 

 he had travelled about forty yards. Then the 

 man behind the gun stared at the bird in the 

 water, and wondered why Fate had seen fit to 

 weave that particular mesh, why the ball had hap- 

 pened to touch the mark, and why there was more 

 genuine satisfaction over the kill than there would 

 have been had the mark been a buck. 



It sometimes appears as though the grouse yet 

 preserved a trace of an old-time migratory instinct 

 which impels it about mid-autumn to wander far 

 from its usual haunts. A paragraph referring to 

 the capture or sight of a live bird in the centre of 

 some large town or city may be found in many a 

 paper, and always about the end of September or 

 early in October. Birds which have struck the 

 wires above busy streets are not unfrequently 

 picked up, and these things go to show that some 

 grouse are given to taking long night flights. 

 The writer's old home lies within the limits of a 

 small city, and fully a mile and a half from the 

 nearest possible grouse cover, yet he has several 

 times seen, and more than once shot, grouse (each 

 time a lone bird) in his garden. Once a big cock 

 smashed through a pane of glass and took refuge 

 under a parlor sofa. There were many specimens 

 of stuffed game in that room, and if the glass- 

 smashing bird yearned for a place among the 



