CHAPTER XV. 

 PINNATED GROUSE. 



(Tetrao cupido.) 



SCARCELY can I sit to write of this prince of game 

 birds without longing for the delightful weather 

 of September, and the verdant, smooth, undulating 

 prairies of the Western States. The associations con- 

 nected with this class of shooting are to me delightful, 

 recalling vividly the society of friends and re-unions, 

 the result of sincere friendship. Then it is the advent 

 in America of the shooting-season proper : the gun, 

 which, in many instances, has been shut up in its cell- 

 like case, smothered with tow and grease, has a fresh 

 nativity ; the new setters or pointers, reared and 

 broken perhaps far from the owner's eye, have to 

 make their debut, and not improbably a new sporting 

 suit, fresh from the skilful hands of some reputed 

 clothier, is to have its maiden lustre first dimmed. 

 Every disciple of the chase, if he lives within reach, or 



