PINNATED GROUSE. 237 



expose for sale the temporarily forbidden treasures be- 

 fore the termination of the close season. Gentlemen of 

 America, 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 American 

 game, which once were to be found in abundance in 

 almost every section of the country, so was the 

 prairie chicken ; but as civilisation 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 this day 

 one can be found in that State. All along the Atlantic 

 seaboard, from Virginia to Maine, they were once to be 

 found ; while now, save a scattered few on the scrub 

 plains of Long Island, Martha's Vineyard, and Mount 

 Desert Island, not a single specimen will be seen. 

 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 inter- 

 loper. Fortunately, all game does not thus dread the 

 stranger's presence, for as civilisation increases so does 

 the partridge, and the familiar call of Bob White will 

 soon entirely supplant the deep, musical, but strange 

 booing of the prairie fowl east of the Mississippi. 



