SHOOTING THE WOODS GROUSE 389 



bird is worthy of higher commendation than the dusky 

 grouse. This is especially true when the birds on 

 the lower plateaus are feeding on the tiny red huckle- 

 berry that grows in such profusion in the pine woods. 



While the females are down in the lower ground, 

 attending to nest building, hatching, and the rearing 

 of their young, the old males and the barren females 

 resort to the higher land, often being found on the 

 mountain sides far above timber line. From such 

 places they are often startled by the goat or sheep 

 hunter, and pitching down from these great heights 

 take long flights, at last bringing up down among the 

 timber, and flying so far that no one knows just exactly 

 where they go. 



Nowhere, so far as my limited experience goes, is 

 the dusky grouse pursued in so systematic and sports- 

 manlike a manner as on Vancouver Island, near the 

 beautiful city of Victoria. My shooting of them there 

 dates back many years, and it may be that in recent 

 years the sportsmen of other parts of the Pacific coast 

 have taken to shooting this splendid bird over dogs, as 

 in old times they did near Victoria. 



What good shooting there was at Victoria twenty- 

 five years ago, and how varied the bags used to be! 

 There were the pheasants rising like an explosion of 

 fireworks, sometimes from under your very feet, and 

 seeming after you had ineffectively fired both bar- 

 rels in the air in your fright to wave at you in de- 

 rision long brown tails that you almost felt you could 

 grasp by reaching out the hand. There were blue 



