QUAIL-SHOOTING IN THE WEST. 101 



excursion to Lynn County, Missouri. I hunted on 

 Shoal Creek, in the neighborhood of Cameron, a 

 place about fifty miles east of St. Joseph, on 

 the Missouri River. It was a good place for 

 game. There were quail, pinnated grouse, some 

 ruffed grouse, turkeys and deer in large numbers. 

 I killed many turkeys and a few deer ; but of 

 these I shall give some account further on, under 

 the proper heads. The country is wild and 

 broken, with much brush and timber, and abounds 

 in gullies, deep hollows, and steep ravines. The 

 bevies, when flushed, would frequently fly for 

 the thickets and gullies, and then it was difficult 

 shooting. Sometimes, however, they would scat- 

 ter and drop in the grass of the pieces of prairie, 

 and then I had beautiful sport, killing from 

 twenty to thirty brace a day. The pinnated 

 grouse were not numerous about there, but the 

 ruffed grouse were in fair numbers for them. 

 Iowa is a good State for quail. There are more 

 groves of timber and more brush there than in 

 Illinois, but the latter is much the best State for 

 pinnated grouse, and the growing up of the Osage 

 orange hedges has supplied in many parts the 

 want of brush, and thus increased the head of 

 quail. When flushed in the open, the birds very 



