230 GAME. 



impossible for the eggs at least to escape the search of 

 prowling wolves and foxes, or the more patient and pene- 

 trating skunk, all of which abound in the wild regions 

 which she inhabits. Not unfrequently the nest is broken 

 up ; the hen seeks another locality and makes another 

 and another nest, rarely failing of success in the end. 



THE RUFF GROUSE. 



(Tetrao umbellus.) 



This bird, so well known to eastern sportsmen, scarcely 

 deserves a place in a list of plains game birds. A few 

 may be found in the timber along the foot hills ; a large 

 number were killed by my command in the Black Hills, 

 but it delights in timber, in thick cover, and is in no sense 

 a plains bird. It exists in certain favourable localities 

 on the plains, but cannot be relied on for sport by the 

 plains hunter. 



PINNATED GROUSE. 



The appearance and habits of the pinnated grouse are 

 almost as well known as those of domestic fowls. I have 

 therefore but little to say of them, except to enter my 

 protest against the name ' prairie chicken.' 



Probably no name that could be adopted would take 

 the place of the name by which the farmers and non- 

 sportsmen of the west know this bird ; but I confess that 

 after working hard, and getting a fine bag of grouse, iny 

 gorge rises like Mr. Podsnap's when some one says, ' You 

 have a fine lot of chickens.' This game is spreading west 

 with advancing civilisation. This apparently curious 

 problem is easily solved. It being a purely prairie bird, 

 and going to cover only when forced to do so, it cannot 

 protect its young from the attacks of hawks, and the 



