56 FIELD SHOOTING. 



On such mornings, when the weather is still as 

 well as chilly, the grouse may be heard cackling 

 and chattering in the timber-land for a consider- 

 able distance inwards, but on other occasions 

 they never resort to the groves. This bird is 

 certainly of much service to the agriculturist, as 

 it consumes many grasshoppers and other de- 

 structive insects, while the little wheat, corn, and 

 oats it eats does not amount to anything by 

 comparison. Indeed, its food, before the wheat- 

 land is in stubble, is probably wholly composed 

 of insects and the buds of heather and other 

 plants to be found in the prairies and in the 

 spacious pastures of the West. Before the great 

 prairies of Illinois and other Western States were 

 broken up by the plough of the settler, the 

 grouse were more numerous than they are now, 

 and they could not have fed on grain, because 

 there were no fields of grain within hundreds of 

 miles of them. It is the same now in those parts 

 where the prairies are still extensive, and on the 

 great pastures where droves of bullocks, hundreds 

 strong in number, are fatted for the Eastern mar- 

 kets. It is my firm belief, from observations 

 made for many years about the time of the 

 breeding season, that the pinnated grouse is poly- 



