378 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 



To be ready for the opportunities the sportsman must 

 be quiet, and never relax his vigilance, and his gun 

 must be so held that it can instantly be brought into 

 position to shoot. The nerves of the shooter must be 

 constantly at a high tension in readiness for the rise 

 of the bird and the instantaneous shot. Every faculty 

 must be at a high key. The very moment that the 

 shooter relaxes his attention will be the moment that 

 the bird will rise, and before the sportsman can get 

 ready the opportunity is gone. It will be seen that 

 the man who dawdles with his gun, who is slow in 

 the handling of it, or who is noisy, cannot hope for 

 any satisfactory success in shooting the bird of game 

 birds, the ruffed grouse. On the other hand, he can be 

 keyed up to too high a pitch, overready when the bird 

 rises. A nervous flurry does nearly as much to disar- 

 range the desired results as does the more indolent 

 dawdling. There are those, however, who can never 

 overcome the nervous start at the roar of the bird's 

 wings, though they may be perfectly undisturbed in 

 any other bird shooting. 



And the skill of the shooter, be it ever so high in 

 degree, must be supplemented by the work of a quiet, 

 well trained, industrious, intelligent dog, for the 

 shooter is much better off without any dog at all than 

 with one that is riotous or one that ranges too far or 

 that is heedless of his work. Loud orders to the dog 

 have no place in ruffed grouse shooting. The sports- 

 man himself cannot observe too great a silence. The 

 human voice alarms and puts the birds to flight. 



