CPLAND SHOOTING. 



201 



UPLAND PLOVER SHOOTING. 



TTH the end of July, all that can 

 properly be called shooting, as a gen- 

 uine sport, is at an end. The AVood- 

 cock, as I have already stated, is no 

 longer to be found, whether he be 

 lying perdu on the mountain tops, or 

 t)ff' on a wilder wing for the far north. 

 The Snipe has not yet begun to re- 

 turn from his arctic breeding places ; the Quail is still busy 

 with her eggs, or her fledgling cheepers; and the Ruffed Grouse, 

 although her young are already two-thirds grown, id protected 

 by the game-laws until the first day of November. 



This last protection by the way, is as absurd in point of fact, 

 as everything connected with the game laws of the States. 



All the varieties of Grouse are early breeders ; their young 

 come rapidly to maturity ; when full-grown they are as wild as 

 hawks ; and at all times, from their own habits, and the peculi- 

 arity of the ground on which they reside, they take better care 

 of thems(-l\c-;. than any other species of winged game. The 

 breeding season of these birds commences in May ; early in 

 June the young birds can fly ; and by the middle of September 

 they are full-grown. There is this peculiarity about them, 

 moreover, that they do not, as all other birds of this order, 

 rasores, with which I am acquainted, keep together in broods oi 

 coveys until the commencement of the next breeding season ; 

 but se])arate altogether, and ramble about either as single indi- 

 viduals, or in small parties, during the autumn and winter. 



