228 GAME. 



found on the margins of thickets of shrubs and bushes 

 that dot the surface of otherwise open grassy glades. When 

 driven from these a few may be killed on the wing ; 

 but the larger number fly into the branches, whence they 

 may be shot one after another. Though this pot -shooting 

 is repugnant to the true sportsman, it keeps the larder well 

 supplied with most delicious food, and when other game 

 is scarce great numbers of these birds fall victims to this 

 peculiar habit. 



I have frequently known a bird to sit quietly on a 

 branch while a bungler with a rifle fired half a. dozen or 

 more shots at him from a distance of only a few feet. 



Of his domestic habits but little is known. I have 

 never seen two fully-grown birds together at any season. 

 The female makes her nest generally on some dry bank 

 close to a stream, and where the ground is so steep that 

 it is comparatively safe from the tread of heavy animals. 

 She lays from ten to fifteen eggs, about the size of those 

 of a guinea fowl. When hatched, the brood is taken to 

 the nearest shrub-dotted glade, where it remains until 

 weaned, when it separates, and each bird betakes himself 

 to a solitary life among the pines. 



SHARP-TAILED GROUSE. 



Tetrao (centrocercus) PhasianeUus. 



This bird is commonly and erroneously called the 

 4 willow grouse.' It is said to be a native of British 

 America, and that it is gradually working its way south 

 and east, as the pinnated grouse is pushing its way to the 

 west. Whether this be true or not, certain it is that the 

 bird is now much more plentiful on the plains than it was 

 only a few years ago, and that it is now found in great 

 abundance even as far east as the Missouri River, where 

 less than ten years ago it was unknown. 



It takes its name from the fact that the two middle 



