326 MANUAL FOR YOl'NU SPORTSMEN. 



not a close carrier and a hard hitter, he will laugh you and 

 your shot to scorn. 



It is true that he rises with so prodigious a flutter and 

 rush, that he shakes the nerves of young shooters, and nine 

 times out of ten gets away unharmed. It is true, that 

 when flushed once, he mostly takes to the tree and cannot 

 be found again ; and, to conclude, it is true, that he is the 

 wildest and shyest of all wood-hunting game, and that his 

 habit of running three or four hundred yards away, as 

 fast as he- can ply his legs, from the spot where he is 

 pointed, and then flying off at a bee-line, renders it diffi- 

 cult indeed to get a shot at him. 



But therein is the difficulty; not in shooting him, when 

 one has the chance of a shot. For when he rises within 

 range, although he does so with a fearful fuss and flutter, 

 if one keep cool, and be not flurried, he hangs heavily at 

 first on the air, displays a wide mark of rustling loose 

 feathers to the aim, and is far from requiring an unusually 

 hard blow to bring him. When he comes, great is the 

 fall of him, and great the rejoicing over him in the 

 dining-room and the kitchen ; for if he be hung till he be 

 thoroughly tender, quickly and discreetly roasted, and 

 eaten off hot plates with bread sauce and fried bread 

 crumbs, his tout ensemble is undeniable, and the fumet of 

 his thighs and back-bone a thing worthy the knowledge 

 of Apicius. For marking the ruffed grouse, the same rule 

 holds good as of the quail ; but, in all my experience, I 

 have not seen this bird marked a dozen times, so wildly 

 does it fly. 



The woodcock, moreover, is now in full vigor, in full 



