384 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 



ago I received an invitation from C. Beatty, of Platts- 

 burg, Lake Champlain, to go and have a few days of 

 mixed shooting with him. It was late in September, 

 but most of the leaves were still on the trees. The first 

 day we had a grand duck shoot on Missisquoi Bay, 

 and after that an outing for woodcock. The last day 

 had been reserved for partridge and gray squirrels. We 

 had breakfast at daylight and were off. We had not 

 far to go to reach our ground patches of hardwood 

 trees with a good deal of underbrush. We soon heard 

 some whirring off at our approach, but could not even 

 get a glimpse of them. After a time I got a crossing 

 shot at one, over fifty yards away, which I bagged, 

 and that was the only bird we got. But we surely 

 heard a dozen or more rising. I was simply astonished 

 that such a bird could be so shy. When I came back 

 here and told the natives about my experience, they 

 thought I was pulling the long bow. I believe it will 

 be many years before our birds get so highly educated." 



DUSKY GROUSE SHOOTING 



To my mind, the most splendid of the many Ameri- 

 can grouse is the dusky, or blue, grouse found in the 

 Rocky Mountains, north to Alaska, and west, at vari- 

 ous points, to the Pacific coast. To be sure, it is not 

 as large as the sage grouse, yet it is a big bird, some- 

 times weighing up to four pounds, and nearly two 

 feet long. Its tender and delicate flesh is always good 

 eating, and its habits of life, in underbrush and timber 



