OUTDOORS 



grouse. There is nearly always one bird 

 which waits until the covey has flown before 

 it gets up out of the cover. And so it pays 

 to hunt around when a covey has flown, in 

 search of this laggard bird before going on. 

 It is very laborious and difficult work hunt- 

 ing chickens without a dog, especially in Sep- 

 tember, when the birds are young and loath 

 to fly, and the cover is thick. Chickens will 

 skulk and hide and squat in the grass or 

 stubble and let you pass within a few feet 

 of them without their rising. A well-broken 

 dog, or even two dogs, must necessarily be 

 taken along. And a crippled prairie-chicken 

 can dodge along in the cover and sneak away 

 through corn-rows in a manner to defy any- 

 thing but a good dog. When a covey scatters 

 in corn and high grass or weeds a dog can 

 locate them one by one, and it is no trick at 

 all to bring them down in the open. In tall 

 grass it is not so easy. You are obliged to 

 shoot quickly then, and the waving blades 

 of corn on a windy day are not easy to see 

 through. But in stubble, or on the prairies, 

 a September chicken at from twenty to forty 

 yards is an easy mark. 

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