82 FIELD SHOOTING. 



turkeys about Oliver's Grove just then, it was a 

 good place for them, and from what I saw there 

 must have been lots of deer in the neighborhood. 

 In regard to grouse-shooting late in the fall of 

 the year, there is one thing which should be par- 

 ticularly observed. It is the necessity of silence. 

 There should be very little or no talk indulged 

 in between those who are on the beat. In the 

 earlier part of the season it does not much matter 

 what talk there is, though I am one of those who 

 can stand a good deal of silence, when hunting, 

 at any time; but late in the fall talking makes 

 the grouse get up out of distance. They will rise 

 at the sound of the human voice at that season of 

 the year sooner than they will at the crack of the 

 gun. If two men go along talking and gabbling, 

 as I have seen and heard them do, the grouse 

 will nearly all rise out of shot, while they would 

 have lain long enough to have afforded many fair 

 shots if silence had been preserved. In order not 

 to be obliged to talk and call to my dogs at such 

 times, I have them broken to hunt to the whistle 

 and the motion of the hand. I have had some 

 dogs that would hunt all day and never make it 

 necessary to speak to them. I have been out with 

 men who would talk in spite of remonstrances 



