Some Glimpses of Grousing 139 



a county line, or a road, had been cut for miles 

 through the woods. The trees had been felled 

 so the tops lay together, which formed a continu- 

 ous brush-pile sometimes for a mile at a stretch. 

 At intervals the land fell away to low swampy 

 expanses bearing much thicket. Along this line, 

 especially when there were two guns, to cover 

 both sides of the brush, the shooting used to be 

 fine. Frequently one could see the grouse mov- 

 ing about under the brush, and fifty times a snap- 

 shot camera might have " caught " the writer 

 with gun in left hand and a club, or snowball, in 

 the right, as he prepared to hurl in the missile 

 to start some grouse which hesitated about leav- 

 ing such excellent cover. To give an idea of the 

 number of birds — one well-remembered day's 

 bag was twenty-six and a few hares, to two guns. 

 That day at least fifty birds were flushed, the 

 peculiar cover saving about half of them. 



The sport of the Red River Valley would be 

 fine were it not for the nature of the cover, which, 

 far north at least, is mainly long slim saplings, 

 so closely crowded that free swinging of the gun 

 is impossible. The writer is a quick shot and 

 not awkward in brush, but the grouse of Mani- 

 toba have no great cause to regret his visits. 

 " What you think about it ? " he once asked a 

 quaint old hunter who was guiding him in the 



