Or THE OPEN (5UNTKV 





have four splendid grouse of the 

 open country which formerly were 

 tremendously abundant. The prairie 

 grouse, the sharp-tailed grouse, the 

 heath-hen, and the sage grouse comprise the best 

 group of grouse to be found anywhere in the world. They all lie 

 well to the dogs and are excellent food birds. The former abun- 

 dance of these birds is almost beyond belief. Tons of them once 

 were shipped to the Eastern markets at a single consignment. 

 I have shot on the Western prairies when it was an easy matter 

 to bag a wagon load of grouse in a half-day's shooting by two 

 guns. The birds now are extinct in entire states and never 

 can be restored excepting by private industry, since it is abso- 

 lutely necessary to preserve some of the wild grasses, roses, 

 sunflowers, and other covers which will not be preserved in 

 closely cultivated regions unless it pays to do so. 



In the states where the grouse still occur most of the farms 

 are posted against all shooting and many of the states now 

 prohibit grouse shooting absolutely. But the birds must 

 continue to vanish in places where their natural covers and 

 foods are destroyed, because they become an easy prey to their 



28 



