98 GALLINACEOUS BIRDS— GROUSE 



They have been rapidly taught what a man, a dog, and 

 a gun mean, and have become " educated birds," as 

 the partridge shooters say, as the towns have sprung 

 into existence in the neighborhood of their haunts. 

 One who has read Irving's account of the wild turkeys 

 standing on the branches and gazing in stupid aston- 

 ishment at the soldiers who shot them down, will be 

 prepared to believe the tales of the former tameness of 

 the blue-grouse, but it is to-day in many places as wild 

 as the wildest ruffed-grouse, and if such traits are 

 hereditary, as they no doubt are, it will remain one of 

 the most difficult of all the gallinaceous birds which 

 find a place in the sportsman's bag. 



The surroundings of the great blue-grouse are all ap- 

 propriate. This magnificent bird has a magnificent 

 background. As I have observed, he is nearly twice 

 as large as his ruffed cousin of the East. His mountains 

 are more than twice as high. His trees and rocks and 

 crags are many times as big. His brooks are larger, 

 and flow with louder noise ; their falls are more majes- 

 tic. The fish, too — the mountain trout — are large and 

 fine, far bigger than those of the Eastern brooks. 



There are many trees in the woods of California, 

 Oregon, and other States where the blue grouse lives, 

 besides the so-called big trees, Gigantea Sequoia^ which 

 grow to a height of several hundred feet. The ground 

 is littered with cones of tremendous size. The blue- 

 grouse when moved from the ground can fly straight up 

 to the branch of a tree beyond the range of a gun. The 

 rifle is more often used to shoot them in many places, 

 and in fact in all new countries it is the only weapon. 



In the late fall, about the middle of November, the 



