THE PRAIRIE HEN. 151 



birds ; and so abundant are they in many parts of the 

 prairie at the beginning of the season that twenty or 

 five-and-twenty brace a day may be easily killed to a 

 single gun. Later in the year they are not easily ap- 

 proached, especially if they have been disturbed and fired 

 at. It is at all times and seasons necessary to avoid 

 talking, as any noise of such a nature at once alarms 

 them ; and on a still day of course the greater caution 

 is requisite in this particular. 



Splendid sport may be had in the valley of the 

 Assineboine, or on the frontier prairies south-west of 

 Lake Michigan, which are reached by way of Detroit. 

 Rochelle, eighty-four miles from Chicago* on the Dixon 

 line, is also a first-rate quarter. 



The ripe corn-fields of the remote and isolated settlers 

 living on the borders of the prairie are favourite resorts; 

 and for one or two weeks before and after harvest large 

 packs of these birds may there be seen feeding, morn- 

 ing and evening. Towards the end of October it is not 

 uncommon to see as many as two hundred birds, or 

 even more, thus collected together. 



In summer they luxuriate on wild strawberries, 

 "partridge-berry," insects, and larva? of different kinds. 

 In winter the buds of various trees and the small 

 acorn of the dwarf oak, which grows in the " prairie 

 scrub," form their only support, and when the snow 



