412 Qimil and Grouse of the Pacific Coast 



the more southern hills there is an abundance 

 of the tall pines, deeply shaded glens, secluded 

 thickets, and fern-clad swales that it most loves. 

 In the high Sierra, where the silence of the woods 

 is really oppressive at times, there is no more 

 welcome sound than the wing of this grouse as 

 it wheels into sight from some raspberry patch, 

 scuds away over the carpet of pine needles, or 

 bursts from the tangled vines that robe some rocky 

 dell. On open ground it makes about the same 

 mark as the pinnated grouse when full grown, but 

 before it has the strong wing of late autumn. It 

 makes few twists or curves ; but, on much of the 

 ground where it is found, it can vanish among 

 the colonnades of great trunks in manner almost 

 as ravishing as that of the ruffed grouse. And 

 even where the timber is smaller, as among the 

 dense tamaracks, it is no easy matter to turn the 

 gun upon the large target before it is out of sight 

 among the serried trunks. Nor is its rise so close 

 as to make very easy shooting. In the timber it 

 will be oftener over twenty yards than under, and 

 very rarely near enough to allow any trifling in 

 getting the gun ready. The courtesy we used to 

 extend to a tenderfoot friend in giving him first 

 shot at the pinnated grouse, with a comparative 

 certainty of securing it after he had missed with 

 both barrels, would generally result in a short 

 larder with this grouse. 



