158 The Grouse Family 



cult cover; and, perhaps best of all, it offers a 

 comparatively easy mark early in the season 

 when the guns are apt to be out of form, with in- 

 creasing difficulties as the season advances, when 

 the guns should be doing better, while near the 

 close of the season it will thoroughly test the skill 

 and resourcefulness of the deadliest of the masters 

 of the shotgun. Lives there another game bird 

 of which as much may be truly said ? And this 

 is not all, for the big, generous chicken goes even 

 farther and extends an invitation to the lame, the 

 halt, and I came pretty near saying the blind ! 

 Come to think of it, the chicken might welcome 

 the blind nay! even prefer them but that 

 doesn't matter. Lest these rather sweeping state- 

 ments should be misunderstood, it is pardonable 

 to explain that (providing what's left of him be 

 all right) a one-armed, one-legged, or no-legged 

 man may enjoy his chicken-shooting with the 

 best of them. The western prairies have their 

 fine shots who are maimed in all three ways, for 

 the chicken may be shot from either the saddle, 

 or any suitable wheeled conveyance, without any 

 need for the gunner to move from his seat. Shoot- 

 ing from the saddle is a method which is common 

 in both West and South, but only the prairie in 

 some form can offer reliable sport to the man on 

 wheels. 



The prairie-hen, now inseparably associated 



