294- AMEKICAN GAME. 



their bodies erect, and their necks elongated, and might 

 have been killed easily, the only difficulty being that of 

 perceiving them, a difficulty far more considerable than 

 would be imagined to ah unpracticed eye. To shoot 

 birds sitting, however, whether on trees or on the ground, 

 is not sport for a sportsman ; the only case where it is 

 ever allowable, is to the woodsman on a tramp through 

 the primitive and boundless forest, where his camp- 

 kettle must be filled by the contents of his bag, and 

 where to throw away a chance is, perhaps, in the end to 

 go supperless to bed. In such a case, while canoeing it 

 last Autumn " with a goodly companye" up the northern 

 rivers that debouch into lake Huron, we shot many, 

 while portaging around cataracts or rapids on the 

 Severn ; and on one occasion a gentleman of the party 

 shot three birds, out of one small pine tree, without any 

 of them moving or appearing alarmed at the gun-shots. 

 This has often been related as a constant and ordinary 

 habit of the bird,; and from that occurrence, I am 

 induced to believe that when the bird is in its natural 

 solitudes, unacquainted with man and his murderous 

 weapons, such may be the case ; in the settlements, 

 however it might have been when they were rare and 

 sparse, this is the habit of the Ruffed Grouse no longer. 

 I have never in my life, save in the instance mentioned, 

 observed anything of the kind ; on the contrary, I have 

 ever found them the wildest, the most wary, and unless, 



