SHOOTING THE PRAIRIE GROUSE 399 



terminate a brood, and in many places, a few weeks 

 after the shooting season had begun, there were prac- 

 tically no grouse left on the prairie. When, however, 

 the shooting season begins in October, or even No- 

 vember, as is now sometimes the case, the birds are 

 shy, scarcely lie to a dog, and are strong of wing. 

 To kill them in great numbers is not an easy matter 

 u-nder such conditions. 



PINNATED GROUSE SHOOTING 



To-day there are few places, except in Texas, where 

 much pinnated grouse shooting may be had, but thirty 

 or forty years ago things were very different. Then 

 men would start out on foot, and after two or three 

 hours of shooting would return to their homes bending 

 under a heavy backload of birds. Even later than 

 that, great shooting was to be had in Illinois, Iowa, 

 Minnesota and Nebraska. One scarcely dare say how 

 large the bags used to be, but they were unquestion- 

 ably large. Men hunted from wagons, carrying relays 

 of dogs, with abundant water to keep them fresh at 

 all times. Driving from farm to farm, and from vil- 

 lage to village, they covered an immense area of ter- 

 ritory and killed a great number of birds. In fact, at 

 one time, during the first days of amateur photography, 

 it was common to see photographs of such wagons 

 hung around with game, and with the well-armed gun- 

 ners and their dogs standing near. Happily, the taste 

 for such pictures is slowly changing, though the big- 



