rPLAxn SHOOTING. i!4I> 



attempt is becoming more and more useless ; and anything ap- 

 proaching to sport is absolutely hopeless. 



Many years ago I spent a week among the forest land north- 

 ward of Milford, and with no success whatever, not so much as 

 seeing a single bird. 



In INlartha's Vineyard they are so strictly preserved, that 

 I have never taken the trouble of travelling thither on the chance 

 of obtaining permission to shoot at them, although I am well 

 aware that there are sportsmen from New York who resort 

 thither yearly in pursuit of them. 



On the barrens of Kentucky, where they fomierly abounded, 

 as in tlie Eastern States, they have become extinct ; and, in truth, 

 unless the sportsman is prepan;d to travel so far as Chicago, St. 

 Joseph's, or St. Louis, he has not much chance of obtaining any- 

 thing to reward his pains, in the way of Grouse shooting; and 

 it is, perhaps, worth observing, that in the present advanced 

 state of internal communication with the Western Cf)untry, 

 there is no real difficulty, and no gi-eat expense, in the way of 

 the adventurer who would try his fortune on the Heath-Hen in 

 its own wild haunts. The facilities of steamboat travel are par- 

 ticularly favorable to the transportation of dogs ; and it would, 

 doubtless, well repay a party to set off at any time after the 

 first of September, with a strong kennel, for the prairies. 



This Grouse breeds early, the nest being generally finished 

 on the first of May ; the eggs are rarely more than twelve in 

 number, the hen sits eighteen or nineteen days, and the young 

 run so so(m as they are hatched. This species never raises a 

 second brood, unless the first is destroyed. About the first of 

 August the young are about equal in size to the Quail, and are, 

 I rei^rct to say, at that age, and a little older, butchered, and 

 pronounced excellent eating by men who take the name of 

 sportsmen. 



A writer in the " Turf Register," under the title of "Tom 

 Trigor," a fellow of infinite humor, and of so very correct 

 opinions on a great variety of topics, that I mai-\-el at his prac- 

 tice in regard to Grouse, discourses thus on the habits and 

 modes of shooting this bird, as he understands them : — 



