UPLAND SHOOTINfi. 243 



they lay, T miule some observation to my companion about his 

 rashness in firing- ; when three more birds whirred out of the 

 sani" l)us',i in ijnirk su(x-.ession, and of course got away unshot 

 at, all mir barri'ls l>eing empty. Alter I had loaded, yet an 

 ei'j;litli bird got up a few yards ahead, having crept out, I 

 imagine, while the dogs were at down charge, and I was fortu- 

 nate enough to kill it also — thus bringing four Ruffed Grouse 

 to bag, which were sprang one by one, or very nearly so, out 

 of a t!,ickct less than thirty feet in circumference. We ought 

 certainly to have got one more bird, at least; and had we been 

 as silent as wo should, might possibly have bagged them all, for 

 they all rose within four or five yards of our gun-muzzles, and 

 the place was quite open and fair shooting ground. 



I iu>ver saw a more evident proof of the great propriety, and 

 great gain, of attending strictly to the most minute rules of 

 sportsmnnship and woodcraft ; like laws of military tactics, 

 they can never be violated with impunity ; and though we ob- 

 serve them ninety-nine times, the violation on the hundredth 

 will almost certainly prove disastrous. 



I know an instance of a good sportsman in the city of New- /^ > 

 York, whose name I do not record, giving him the credit of a ' ^ 



remarkable feat; because, being in business, it might injure ^''»''w «*»'' 

 liim among those gentry of the street, who think no hunting but '^.^/L ^ /'' 

 dollar-hunting respectable ! who actually brought to bag eight ^ ' ^ , 

 Pinnated Grouse, in succession, without himself moving from 

 his ground, or his dog breaking its point. This occurred, some ■*•■ ■- ' -' - '^' 

 years since, on Martha's Vineyard; but, as I have observed )U f» h /^ • 

 before, I know no authentic instance of the Ruffed Grouse ever 

 lying in the same manner, after the separation of the broods/ ''' '*^*'/ 

 Before that period, they of course lie to the dog as the Quail, v, ,. f..., 

 the Prairie Hen, or the Grouse of the British Isles. Hence, I ,,j / 



consider the day fixed by our legislature for the end of close '''^'' £ 



time, as too late in regard to the Ruffed Grouse. rii a *t'v 



The constantly repeated tale, that the Ruffed Grouse when it -v^-^it f.,f._,. 

 alights in trees in companies, which it occasionally will do, in ^ 

 the spring, when eating the young buds, of which it is extremely . ■■ ' 





-'Zj. 



