I20 GAME BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA. 



or no damage done on either side. This bird is found in open 

 plains on which are few trees, but sometimes takes to the scrub 

 oak for shelter. The nest is composed of grasses and leaves, built 

 on the ground under the shelter of a bush. The eggs are brown- 

 ish white, often somewhat spotted, and from ten to fifteen in num- 

 ber. The great increase of this description of bird is in a measure 

 owing to the immense wheat fields which have been sown during 

 the last ten years in the West, where they assemble in packs, and 

 are the gleaners of the harvest. 



The " prairie hen," or Pinnated Grouse, is lawful game in most 

 of the States between the middle of August and the first of Janu- 

 ary, but the season closes in reality about the first of November, 

 because the birds by that time have become so wild, that but few 

 care to hunt them. But for the sportsman who does not mind 

 working for his game, and who delights in trying his own skill 

 and the excellence of his gun on a full-grown bird at long range, 

 there are occasionally days on which the sport is splendid. You get 

 up some morning and find it clear and frosty, but you know it will 

 be warm and still for three hours during the middle of the day ; 

 so by sun up or a little later you are on some knoll on the edge of 

 the prairie watching ; you see Grouse flying everywhere, from one 

 alone to perhaps a thousand together ; they alight in the cornfields 

 mostly, though some come down on the prairie again. Look ! 

 yonder come a dozen ; they will fly right over you ; no, they swerve 

 fifty yards to one side and pass you like bullets, single out your 

 bird, hold four feet in front of him, and when he is barely oppo- 

 site, cut loose. Following the crack of the gun you hear a sharp 

 whack as the shot strike, and you have tumbled an old cock into 

 the grass. You have, of course, marked down as many of the 

 birds as possible ; let them feed an hour and then drive them up. 

 They will rise very wild and the only object in flushing them is to 

 see them down where they will take their noon-day siesta. Now 

 you may go to the house — or more likely to your wagon — rest and 

 get through with your lunch so as to be in the field by twelve 

 o'clock, sharp. You go direct to where you marked some birds 

 down in the morning. At about fifty yards ahead up spring the 

 birds with a terrible clucking and rushing of wings. Quick ! no 

 time for parley now ! cover and shoot as quickly as you can I 



