308 ACCESSIBLE FIELD SPORTS. 



is very injurious and destructive, for by this means 

 numbers of nests are annually destroyed ; yet the 

 practice will be continued, on account of the benefit 

 derived by the owners of the soil, as the ashes manure 

 the ground, and cause the pasture to come in early 

 and luxuriant. As a general rule, you will always 

 in the commencement of the season find the prairie 

 fowl in the vicinity of stubble fields, where they 

 invariably feed night and morning. Frequently they 

 perch upon fences or stacks of grain, and will often suffer 

 the sportsman to approach within easy gun-shot ; but 

 he that would avail himself of this ignoble means of 

 swelling his bag, should be avoided by his fellow mortals, 

 and condemned to wander the remainder of his days in 

 a terra incognita swarming with mosquitoes and black 

 flies, bed bugs and snakes. Late in the season, when 

 the birds have packed and cease to lie well to the dog, 

 the only time that you can hope to be successful is when 

 the sun has reached his greatest altitude and strength ; 

 then, on the grassy slopes directly facing his genial 

 rays, they often appear, for an hour or two, to become 

 indolent or reckless of their safety, remaining so close 

 that they will flush within easy gun-shot, or early in 

 the morning, or late in the evening, when, if you hide 

 yourself in a fence corner, you will get frequent shots 

 at them as they wing their way to corn-fields to feed. 



