SHARP-TAILED GROUSE, ETC. 191 



and then settled themselves for an after-dinner nap. I 

 offered them food again at night, but the red-tails seemed 

 still satisfied with the memories of their noonday repast. 

 All ate heartily the next morning, and I rode away think- 

 ing the aviary the success of the season; but alas for 

 the best laid plans of mice and men ! I came home at 

 night, and no grouse were to be found. Feathers and 

 bones told the tale. My little owls in the corner were 

 hissing in a terrified manner, and those treacherous hawks, 

 with bloody beaks and breasts, were dozing as tranquilly 

 as doves. It was a time for the display of justice, not of 

 wrath, so I searched the cabin for the oldest, strongest 

 pipe that ever afforded solace to a cow-boy, and upon my 

 knife-blade I scraped a few grains of the black, moist 

 nicotine; then I reached into the cage, and caught Master 

 Hawk by both legs before he had time to scratch, and, 

 as he opened his mouth to protest against such unwar- 

 rantable impudence, drew the blade across his tongue, 

 pulled out my watch, and took notes. In fifteen seconds 

 he acted as though he had taken a powerful emetic; then 

 he commenced to tremble violently, and in fifty seconds 

 was upon his back gasping. Then his eyes began to glaze 

 and his legs to stiffen, and in two minutes from the time 

 of taking the dose he was a dead bird. His companion 

 traveled the same road. That night the lonely owls .bur- 

 rowed their way out, and so ended my experience as a 

 professional collector of live-stock. The dusky grouse, 

 sooty grouse, and Franjklin's grouse can, I believe, be 

 successfully introduced into the mountain regions of the 

 East, north of the Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. The 

 Green Mountains, the Adirondacks, and the peaks of 

 Maine would prove most home-like resorts for Frank- 

 lin's grouse, and its sooty brother, that does not like to 

 wander, would soon become contented with the rocky 

 slopes of the Blue Ridge. They can obtain almost the 



