802 HUNTING SPORTS OF THE WEST. 



lowing days we enjoyed a very good grouse-shooting: 

 beating fresh ground on the rolling prairie, about three 

 miles from our temporary home, and sacking fifty-six 

 brace of prairie hens, and a few quail. The weather was 

 cool and breezy the birds plentiful, though wild and 

 the undulating form of the ground proved much more 

 favourable to marking than the uniform flat prairie was 

 found to be. 



A great drawback to prairie grouse shooting, is 

 the unavoidable waste of game. Four or five brace 

 of these heavy birds are quite load enough for the 

 shooter to carry, and will fill to the throat any ordinary 

 game-bag. Nor do these distant plains afford the vigi- 

 lant "cad" of the English country village, or the "slip 

 of a b'y " of the Irish hut, in aid of the sportsman's 

 shoulders. Not to us was the pleasing importance of 

 the British grouse shooter, as he packs, directs, and 

 despatches his valued hamper to some expecting friend ! 

 We had no southron patron, no parliamentary voter, to 

 propitiate through the palate ! no cormorant tradesman 

 to whose monetary impatience a sop might be thrown 

 from a distant moor ! Occasionally, therefore, when 

 we were not fortunate enough to fall in with the cottage 

 of some settler, who was willing to exchange a draught 

 of milk for a brace or two of birds, we found ourselves 

 obliged to abandon part of our game to the kite and the 

 prairie wolf. What else was to be done ? Humanity 

 and the member for Galway would exclaim, " Kill no 

 more than you and your friends can eat !" Not more 

 fruitless is the usual injunction of the careful mamma to 

 the Indian cadet, to " wear flannel, and save money ! ' 



