The Dusky Grouse 411 



to the presence of man, and is easily slaughtered 

 only by those who know how to do it. The 

 proper way to hunt it is with the small rifle, and 

 then it is often one of the most puzzling of all 

 birds to shoot. But even with the shotgun it is 

 no easy victim, except under the same conditions 

 that the wildest ruffed grouse of the eastern 

 woods sometimes is. To many of our most ardent 

 sportsmen it is best known by an occasional 

 glimpse of brown fading among distant tree- 

 trunks, or by the flutter of clumsy wings among 

 the undergrowth. But those same wings carry 

 it out of sight far too rapidly for the tyro, and 

 when among the masses of foliage in the big trees 

 even the sharpest eyes have all they can do to see 

 it, while to shoot it artistically with the rifle needs 

 all the keenness of eye and steadiness of hand the 

 best expert can command. For these reasons it 

 is considered fine game by even the experts of 

 this coast, and no one who hunts it much ever 

 calls it a fool. With the single exception of the 

 ruffed grouse, it is by far the finest flavored of all 

 the game-birds of the Pacific Coast. 



The dusky grouse is not found in what is 

 called southern California, though a few may be 

 found in the higher ranges of Ventura and Santa 

 Barbara counties. It is only where the Sierra 

 Nevada swings around to join the Coast Range 

 at Tehichipi that it begins to appear, though in 



