PINNATED-GROUSE SHOOTING. OO 



Western States there are very extensive ranges 

 of pasture-land, on which great herds of cattle, 

 many from Texas, are fattened. These lands have 

 not been broken up by the plough at any time, 

 but, being regularly depastured, have lost much 

 of the prairie character. They remain, however, 

 good resorts for grouse, and the shooting over 

 them is some of the best to be had. The grouse 

 bred on them probably never see a stubble-field, at 

 least until after late in the fall of their first year. 

 Their habits are the same as those of the birds 

 which are found near the arable corn, wheat, 

 and oat lands. In the morning they will be 

 found on the ridges and knolls where the grass 

 is short. In the heat of the day they retire into 

 the long grass which abounds in low, moist 

 places. In the evening they return to the knolls 

 and ridges again. These pastures are sometimes 

 of the extent of two thousand acres or more, 

 and the shooting on them is second to none in 

 those States. Yet they are comparatively little 

 shot over, especially in the early part of the 

 season. As a rule, it is believed the grouse are 

 more abundant where the land is varied and 

 stubbles, pieces of prairie, corn-fields, and patches 

 of beans are found in the immediate neighborhood 



