298, AMERICAN GAME. 



when I have gone out expressly in pursuit of them, I 

 have never had even tolerable sport. 



If the law were altered, and September shooting per- 

 mitted, the case would be altered also ; and in many 

 regions of our country, as the Kaatskill Mountains, and 

 some parts of Columbia and Saratoga counties, in New 

 York ; the Pocono Mountains, and the Blue Eidge, gen- 

 erally, in Pennsylvania ; and many districts of Maine, 

 Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, rare sport 

 might be had. For September shooting, No. 8 shot will 

 be found sufficient ; but after that, No. 7 ; and very late* 

 in the season, Eley's wire cartridges will be found the 

 most effective. 



This widely extended bird is too well know to require 

 any peculiar description ; and I shall content myself 

 with observing, in aid of my portraiture of the Ruffed 

 Grouse, that the upper part of its head and hind neck 

 are reddish -brown, the back rich chestnut, mottled with 

 heart-shaped spots of white, edged with black. The tail 

 is bright reddish-yellow, barred and speckled with 

 black, and bordered by a broad, black belt between two 

 narrow white bands, one at the extremity of the tail. 

 The iris of the eye hazel, bill brown, feet brownish gray. 

 Loral band cream color. Throat and fore-neck, brown- 

 ish-yellow. Upper ruff-feathers barred with brown. 

 "Wings brownish-red, streaked with black. Breast and 

 abdomen cream colored, closely barred above, and late- 

 rally spotted below, with dark chocolate. Length 18 



