190 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



mile or even more distance will be traversed from the place 

 where they are flushed till they think proper to alight. 

 On the contrary, early in the shooting season, they will 

 lay with such persistency that many efforts of both dog 

 and sportsman will be required before they can be induced 

 to take wing. Their pursuit is followed in the same 

 manner as that of red grouse upon Scotch moors, for their 

 time of watering, dusting, and feeding, are almost identical. 

 At the commencement of the shooting season (which I 

 believe is now on the 1st of September), No. 7 shot will 

 be found heavy enough to do effective work, but later on, 

 when cold nights, accompanied by rain and wind, have 

 taken place, No. 5 should be used. 



The first pheasant I killed in China I thought the 

 noblest game-bird that ever I had pulled a trigger upon, 

 and truly he was a beauty ; the plumage was in the most 

 perfect state the neck of the greenest emerald, the ring 

 of the purest white, the tail the longest, and the different 

 shades and tints of wings and body the very brightest I 

 had ever seen in one of the species ; moreover, he weighed 

 nearly one-half more than any of the same family I had 

 killed at home, and to add additional appreciation, the shot 

 that brought him to the ground was a difficult one, and at 

 long range. For years the pheasant of the southern 

 portion of China reigned paramount in my opinion ; but 

 a change has come over my ideas, and now, superlative 

 before all others, I place two descriptions of American 

 game-birds, and this species is one of them. What days 

 of pleasure have I had in the pursuit of pinnated grouse f 

 What splendid bags have I made, and on such ground as 



