HAUNT OF THE BUFFED GEOUSE. 213 



during that period I could always find them, their home 

 being a little hilly island in the prairie covered with timber 

 and brush, and detached from any irregular land by several 

 miles of grass. 



Some authorities have placed woodcock-shooting first in 

 the list, and called it the fox-hunting of those pleasures in 

 which the dog and gun form the chief accessories. As far 

 as present British field sports are concerned, I believe they 

 are correct, but should the ruffed grouse be introduced, and 

 Englishmen experience the suddenness of their rise, the 

 velocity and irregularity of their flight, the uncertainty of 

 their movements, and the beauty and size of this game 

 when bagged, they would assuredly insert a saving clause. 

 I doubt not many, I believe all, of the warm admirers of 

 shooting will agree with me that there is a superior pleasure 

 in making a mixed bag now a mallard, next a woodcock, 

 perchance thirdly a partridge, and so forth loading your 

 discharged barrel, scarcely knowing at what description of 

 game it will be used. Thus a reason for their introduction 

 to England. 



If the inhabitants of the British Islands can boast of 

 their pheasant and grouse, the Americans can in equal 

 justice laud their ruffed grouse and Virginian ortix. 



CANADIAN OR SPRUCE GROUSE. 



Even to the red iris around the eye, so much does this 

 bird resemble the red grouse of Scotland that it would be 

 pardonable for any one who had not well known the latter 

 to confuse it with the former. Although the Canadian 

 grouse and ruffed grouse are occasionally found upon the 



