Sabine's Grouse 143 



up at the serene brow of the hill and start to 

 register a vow that it would be sacrilege to re- 

 invade that lofty, holy calm. Before you are half 

 through registering, you suddenly remember that 

 the lunch is up there, alongside of a spring, that 

 the flask is cooling in the limpid depths. Then a 

 friendly Dutchman appears, greets you pleasantly, 

 and tells you there are plenty of grouse up there, 

 adding as an inducement, that you can see ever 

 so far south, the great storied ground — the battle- 

 fields. Surely you want to see the battlefields ? 

 If you don't kill him on the spot, you look him 

 squarely in the eye and in the smooth, convincing 

 tone of a steamboat's siren you say : " No, sir ! 

 I don't want to see any battlefields — War — is 

 — hel-1-1-1!" 



Of course all Pennsylvania isn't on edge. There 

 are noble valleys and grand interspaces, but the 

 higher form of sport quite naturally is on top of 

 the hills. A chemical analysis of the writer's 

 record there might read : lead, in paying quanti- 

 ties ; saltpetre, abundant ; language, rich ; slaugh- 

 ter, a trace. 



Sabine's grouse 



{B. u. sabini) 



Adult male and fetnale — Upper parts, mostly dark, rusty chestnut, 

 with black mottling ; rump and upper tail-coverts grayish in 

 many specimens ; flanks, rusty, barred with black ; tail, deep 

 rust color, with irregular black bars, and tipped with gray ; sub- 



