158 HUNTING TRIPS 



labored heavily as they left the ground. 

 I fired just as they topped the bluff, and 

 as they were so close and large, and were 

 going so slowly, I was able to knock over 

 eight birds, hardly moving from my place 

 during the entire time. On our way back 

 we ran into another covey, a much smaller 

 one, on the side of another creek ; of these I 

 got a couple ; and I got another out of still 

 a third covey, which we found out in the 

 open, but of which the birds all rose and 

 made off together. We carried eleven 

 birds back, most of them young and tender, 

 and all of them good eating. 



In shooting grouse we sometimes run 

 across rabbits. There are two kinds of 

 these. One is the little cottontail, almost 

 precisely similar in appearance to the com- 

 mon gray rabbit of the Eastern woods. It 

 abounds in all the patches of dense cover 

 along the river bottoms and in the larger 

 creeks, and can be quite easily shot at all 

 times, but especially when there is any 

 snow on the ground. It is eatable but 



