238 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 



to fly and too inexperienced to force themselves through 

 the thick grass away from the approaching danger. 

 In old times it used to be said that in wet seasons thou- 

 sands and thousands of prairie chickens' nests were 

 ploughed under when the fields were being prepared 

 for grain. Certain it is that the combination of all 

 these dangers, together with the insatiate gunner, at 

 one time came very near exterminating the pinnated 

 grouse from the States of Illinois and Indiana. 



If the mother bird is fortunate enough to bring off 

 her young, she leads them about much as do other 

 grouse, to the best feeding grounds. She is watchful 

 of danger for them, and at her warning cry the young 

 squat on the ground, which they so closely resemble 

 that it is almost impossible to find one of them. The 

 mother uses every art to lead the intruder away from 

 the brood. The birds grow rapidly, and by the middk 

 of August the date at which up to within a few years 

 it has been legal to shoot them are nearly two-thirds 

 grown. They are then very easily killed, and the 

 sport becomes mere butchery. When cold weather ap- 

 proaches, however, they grow stronger of wing, and 

 soon after this pack. 



Audubon was perhaps the first to announce that 

 the pinnated grouse is easily tamed and easily kept. 

 He declares also that they breed in confinement. A 

 number that he had while at Henderson were turned 

 loose in his garden and orchard, and within a week 

 became so tame as to allow him to approach them. 

 They readily ate corn and vegetables, became so gentle 



