THE SHARP-TAILED GROUSE 8i 



markets, when there was no bag limit, no license, no 

 game warden or game law, that the birds were 

 *' warned " away from Northern Illinois. They might 

 readily be restored, in my opinion, with the prairie- 

 hen to many of the farms of Illinois ; but the experi- 

 ment would not be worth while unless the birds were 

 closely protected for a period of years and thereafter 

 carefully guarded on preserves of large size where the 

 shooting would necessarily be limited to the increase 

 of the year. There are many vast preserves owned 

 by Chicago men where the ducks most congregate. 

 A preserve with the sharp-tails restored might well 

 be laid out adjoining the marshes frequented by the 

 ducks. On such a preserve the partridges, woodcock, 

 and ruffed-grouse would need but little more than 

 protection in the oak groves against over-shooting 

 to increase and multiply, and pheasants might be 

 added to advantage. Before it is too late I hope to 

 see the sharp-tails well established on many preserves 

 where the race will no longer be in yearly danger of 

 extermination. 



I have referred at other times to the picturesque 

 features of the country where the sharp-tailed grouse 

 dwell. The many little lakes and ponds reflecting the 

 image of the sky suggested to the Indian the poetical 

 word Minnesota, the land of sky-tinted waters ; Minne- 

 waukon, the lake of the Great Spirit, a large, salt lake 

 second in size to that in Utah, lies well out on the 

 range. The villages of the Mandans, Sioux, and Crows, 

 and their inhabitants in bright costumes, feathered 

 and beaded, were picturesque in the extreme. Much of 

 the sharp-tail country is a land of wild roses and sun- 



