44 FEATHERED GAME 



sore trial of your treasure's temper and 

 staunchness. Next time perhaps he may flush 

 from under your very feet. In most cases his 

 flight is not longer than from three to four hun- 

 dred yards, so that, knowing your ground, you 

 may get another chance if you fail to stop him 

 the first time. It takes a good load of shot and 

 that well placed, too, if this bold ro\er is to be 

 your prize. He will fly till his last breath, 

 yes, and set his wings and scale even after that ; 

 or if only wing-broken will run and skulk and 

 crawl into brush heaps until pursuit is useless. 

 Many a grouse carries his death with him as he 

 flies the hunter, when, if only followed, he would 

 be found perhaps a hundred yards away, still 

 and lifeless. They are the "grittiest" birds 

 that dwell in our land. 



Perhaps some brother sportsman has seen a 

 grouse when wounded and seemingly crazed, fly 

 straight upward, struggling to the last gasp, 

 then all at once collapse and come tumbling to 

 the earth like a stone. Usually such birds are 

 found to be shot through the eyes and brain. I 

 lost one once in this manner, for he fell into the 

 top of a clump of unclimbable "old original 



