GROUSE-SHOOTING ON THE PRAIRIES. 297 



from Lake Superior and Texas to the Bay of Fundy. It is 

 a fine bird on the table, but rarely affords much sport over 

 setters and pointers, as it is a wild, shy, rambling species, 

 and has a knack of running far ahead of the dogs, 

 when pointed, and of rising entirely out of shot. It 

 flies strongly and swiftly, taking wing when disturbed with 

 an impetuous whirring rush, that is apt to disturb the 

 nerves of a novice ; and, as it for the most part takes to 

 the tree, on being roused, it cannot generally be found a 

 second time. The method of shooting it, usually prac- 

 tised by the inhabitants of districts where it abounds, is 

 to flush it with curs or spaniels, which chase it, yelping in 

 pursuit, until it takes the tree, and then bay at the trunk, 

 until the gunner comes up and shoots it sitting. No 

 sportsman, of course, condescends to such butchery; for 

 which the only excuse is, that in thick cedar and tamarisk 

 swamps, where it frequents, it can hardly be shot fairly. 

 Occasionally, where underwood is heavy and the country 

 level, they will lie to the point ; and in ravines, by hunting 

 with three guns, two of which keep well in advance of 

 the dogs on the ridges, while the third hunts along the 

 hollows, shots may be got. I have never, however, found 

 it pay to hunt for them exclusively, as they are the most 

 rambling of all birds, not adhering, like quail, to the 

 fields and feeding grounds in the vicinity of which they 

 are hatched, but wandering over leagues of wood and 

 mountain, so that the pack which is seen to-day at sunset, 

 may be twenty miles off at noon to-morrow. The erro- 

 neous legislation on the subject of this species, still farther 

 diminishes the possibility of sport. By the twentieth of 

 13* 



