THE BUFFED GEOUSE. 293 



day of September, tlie young birds by that time, and in 

 truth much earlier, being quite fit for the gun, and to 

 cease on the fifteenth of December, or at Christmas at 

 the latest, before the snows of winter admit of their 

 being snared and trapped by thousands. 



Toward the middle of October, the old hens drive off 

 the broods, or the young birds now perfectly mature, 

 stray from them of their own accord ; and thenceforth 

 they are found sometimes in little companies of two, 

 three, or four, but far more often singly, in wild, difficult 

 upland woods, through which they love to ramble 

 deviously for miles, as they are led in search of their 

 favorite food, or sometimes, as it would seem, by mere 

 whim. On one occasion, many years since, when I was 

 but a young sportsman on this side of the Atlantic, I 

 remember footing a small party of five birds, in a light 

 snow, for above ten miles among the Wawayanda moun- 

 tains, in -Orange County, New York, without getting up 

 to them ; although it was easily seen by their hurried 

 and agitated tracks that for a great part of the distance 

 they were within hearing of me, and were running from 

 my pursuit. I had no dogs with me. Had I been out 

 with setters, the Grouse would have trailed them for 

 miles, and unquestionably risen at last out of shot. 

 "With spaniels, or curs, trained to run in upon them, and 

 pursue, yelping loudly, as the mode is in the backwoods, 

 where men do not shoot but gun, they would have taken 

 to the trees, and would have sat close to the trunk with 



