1 68 The Grouse Family 



shells tallied. It was an extraordinary performance, 

 which, needless to say, that gun has never dupli- 

 cated either upon chickens or any other game. 



That was chicken-shooting with everything in 

 the gun's favor, but it did not represent the best 

 of the sport, which can only be enjoyed during 

 those occasional warm, windless, sleepy spells which 

 come later, and which are so strongly suggestive 

 of the genuine Indian summer of the East. Then 

 the fully matured birds lie like dead things, but 

 rise swift and strong and go whizzing away on 

 what surely will prove very long flights unless the 

 lead prevents. Then is the time when a man can 

 perhaps kill his twenty odd in succession, yet feel 

 that every kill is an individual triumph of manly 

 skill, for the range with a quick man must needs 

 be short, and the work clean, be it hit or miss. 

 Quite often birds will lie closer than is desirable. 

 In such cases an imitation of the sound of the 

 whirring flush is apt to start near-lying individuals. 

 The sound of the voice also startles them, hence, 

 when a nice lot of birds are down in good cover, 

 it is well to avoid speaking to dog or comrades. 



Where the country comprises a mingling of 

 cover and small prairies, as in some of the best 

 parts of Wisconsin, the chickens after the first 

 flush make for the wooded or brushy hillsides 

 which are almost invariably within easy flight. 

 Much of the timber of these hillsides is small 



