414 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 



explain to himself why he did so and at the next shot 

 correct his error. 



Like all the prairie grouse with which I am ac- 

 quainted, the meat of the full-grown sharp-tailed 

 grouse is dark, though the half-grown birds are white- 

 meated. The flesh is tender and well flavored, as might 

 be expected of birds that had passed the summer feed- 

 ing on prairie insects and a variety of berries. In 

 winter, when the character of the food largely changes, 

 and willow and cottonwood buds constitute a large 

 share of its dietary, its flesh is less toothsome, being 

 much drier. 



The sharp-tailed grouse, owing to the character of 

 country which it inhabits, brushy ravines, willowy bot- 

 toms, and, at certain seasons of the year, hillsides over- 

 grown with underbrush and some large trees, is much 

 less easily killed than the pinnated grouse, and will 

 probably remain with us much longer than that spe- 

 cies. If it could be introduced to eastern covers, and 

 protected until it had established itself, it would prove 

 a grand bird for Atlantic coast gunners. So intro- 

 duced, and so acclimated, it would, however, bear only 

 the very lightest shooting, perhaps not more than three 

 or four per gun in a season. More than that would 

 soon result in their extermination, and the efforts put 

 forth to introduce them would thus be wasted. 



In the early days of western field trials held on 

 prairie chickens in this country, the birds sought for 

 were chiefly the pinnated grouse. These proved not 

 sufficiently numerous, and were so readily killed that 



