HINTS FOR AMERICAN SHOOTING. 303 



the pointer as I am of the setter, but I speak not from 

 hastily- formed opinions, but long experience, having 

 owned both ; in fact, once I thought the opposite to 

 what I do now, but at that period I did not as con- 

 stantly shoot, being only occasionally able to get a 

 few days in the field at a time, and then the adage of 

 " once broken, always broken/' so frequently applied to 

 the pointer, was verified, while the setters, from want of 

 work and exuberance of spirit, would, during the first 

 half-hour, perhaps, behave badly, and require rating 

 both with voice and whip, causing annoyance and the 

 probable loss of one or two shots. But then look at 

 the performance of both on the second or third day. 

 Master Don, the pointer, walks at heel sore-footed and 

 crest-fallen, while Beau, the setter, ranges indefati- 

 gably both far and near, neither deterred on his beat 

 by rough ground, briers, nor marsh. 



All the prairies of the Western States are well 

 stocked with pinnated grouse, familiarly called Prairie 

 Chicken, but they abound principally in Central and 

 Northern Illinois, Iowa, and Northern Missouri. They 

 feed on berries and the tender tops and seeds of grasses. 

 They pair early in the spring, and the female lays 

 from eight to fifteen eggs, in a very primitive nest on 

 the ground. The young leave the nest almost as soon 

 as hatched, and continue to follow the hen, till the 



