188 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



able operation to have to perform ! Fancy stopping in 

 the middle of a covey, with dogs standing, to perform 

 the functions of the kitchen-maid ! the humanity or 

 refinement of the proceeding, the afterwards loading 

 and handling your handsome breech-loader with your 

 well-daubed hands ! or, perhaps in a fit of desperation, 

 caused by the attack of some bloodthirsty mosquito 

 giving your nose or forehead the benefit resulting 

 from your labour ! But it is too horrible to think 

 of. All these drawbacks can be warded oft 7 or pre- 

 vented by not shooting till the weather is suitable ; or, 

 better still, not permitting shooting till such a date as 

 we have reason to expect a sufficiently cool tempera- 

 ture ; making it actionable for game-dealers to expose 

 for sale the temporarily forbidden treasures before the 

 termination of the close season. Gentlemen of Ame- 

 rica, if you wish to keep game abundant, and near 

 home, and to increase and preserve the fine feelings 

 that should imbue the breast of every true sportsman, 

 devote a little attention to this important point. 



Like the deer, bear, and sundry varieties of Ame- 

 rican game, which once were to be found in abundance 

 in almost every section of the country, so was the 

 prairie chicken ; but as civilization and population 

 have increased, in such a ratio their numbers have 

 diminished. In Kentucky, forty years ago, they 

 abounded; it is more than doubtful that one can 

 now be found in that State. The pinnated grouse 

 has abandoned its old haunts, like the Indian, and 

 removes every season farther to the westward, to avoid 

 the society of the pale-faced interloper. Fortunately, 

 all game does not thus dread the stranger's presence, 

 for as civilization increases so does the partridge, and 



