214 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



detached from any irregular land by several miles of 

 grass. 



Some authorities have placed woodcock-shooting first in 

 the list, and called it the fox-hunting of those pleasures in 

 which the dog and gun form the chief accessories. As far 

 as present British field-sports are concerned, I believe they 

 are correct, but should the ruffed grouse be introduced, and 

 Englishmen experience the suddenness of their rise, the ve- 

 locity and irregularity of their flight, the uncertainty of their 

 movements, and the beauty and size of this game when bag- 

 ged, they would assuredly insert a saving clause. I doubt 

 not many I believe all of the warm admirers of shooting 

 will agree with me that there is a superior pleasure in mak- 

 ing a mixed bag now a mallard, next a woodcock, per- 

 chance thirdly a partridge, and so forth loading your dis- 

 charged barrel, scarcely knowing at what description of 

 game it will be used : thus a reason for their introduction 

 to England. 



If the inhabitants of the British Islands can boast of 

 their pheasant and grouse, the Americans can in equal jus- 

 tice laud their ruffed grouse and Virginian ortyx. 



CANADIAN OB SPRUCE GROUSE. 



Even to the red iris around the eye, so much does this 

 bird resemble the red grouse of Scotland that it would be 

 pardonable for any one who had not well known the lat- 

 ter to confuse it with the former. Although the Canadian 

 grouse and ruffed grouse are occasionally found upon the 

 same range of country, the habitat of the former commences 

 where that of the latter ceases, and extends up to almost 

 the sixtieth degree of north latitude. Although occasion- 

 ally flushed in packs, they are more frequently seen in pairs, 

 and the denser the cover and more swampy the soil, the 

 more abundant will they be found. So little do these birds 



