LATE PINNATED-GROUSE SHOOTING. 85 



much importance as many people think. More 

 are taken by trapping late in the season. To see 

 the huge loads of grouse sent by railway to Chicago 

 and on for the Eastern market, one would be at first 

 inclined to suppose that the species must soon be 

 extirpated ; but this is an error. With good breed- 

 ing-places and a fine spring the number of grouse 

 produced is incalculable. No amount of fair 

 shooting makes much impression on game in a 

 good game country. In places where the game is 

 sparse, as it appears to me to be in the Atlantic 

 and Eastern States, save water-fowl on the sea-board, 

 many guns may shoot so close that the proper 

 head for a breeding-stock will not be left. It 

 is altogether different with us. I went once to 

 Christian County, Illinois, and shot round about the 

 little town of Assumption from February 1 to 

 May 20, the latter part of the time being on 

 snipe. The game of all sorts was amazingly 

 abundant. There was a great plenty of grouse and 

 quail, and the number of ducks and geese was 

 almost past belief. It is a varied sort of coun- 

 try with a good deal of low, wet ground, much 

 prairie and much corn-land, and a great deal of 

 hazel-brush along the creeks and on the edges of 

 the groves of timber. It is a splendid country for 



