SHOOTING THE WOODS GROUSE. 



RUFFED GROUSE SHOOTING. 



Dwelling in many sorts of country, sometimes, as 

 in the East, where it is constantly pursued, cunning to 

 the last degree, and practicing every stratagem; or 

 again, in the wild regions, dreading only its natural 

 enemies, and thus fearless and bold, and trusting 

 wholly to strength of wing, the ruffed grouse is killed 

 in many ways and under varying conditions. Where 

 it is ignorant of firearms or of the danger from man, 

 it permits half a dozen shots to be fired at it at close 

 range, or sometimes may even be noosed from its perchi 

 on a limb by a bit of string tied to the end of a pole. 



A graphic account of ruffed grouse shooting in a 

 region where they had been little disturbed, yet were 

 not wholly tame, was contributed to Forest and Stream 

 many years ago by that charming writer and good 

 sportsman, Mr. T. S. Van Dyke. In those days ruffed 

 grouse were abundant in the region referred to, as, 

 in fact, they have been up to comparatively recent times 

 in that country, as well as in certain sections of Michi- 

 gan, where, within only a few years, we have heard 

 of from twenty-five to thirty birds being killed in a 

 day by two guns. We give trie substance of Mr. Van 

 Dyke's account as follows : 



359 



