420 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 



now sailing 1 , he kept on his course till he disappeared 

 behind a hill a mile away. 



"I was, of course, greatly chagrined by his escape, but 

 knowing that, given one grouse, it is usually not difficult 

 to find another, I commenced looking about for the mate 

 of the one I had lost. My search was not a long one ; 

 almost immediately she rose from under a sage brush 

 with a noise like a whirlwind, not to fly a mile before 

 stopping to look around, as the cock had done, but, by a 

 fortunate shot, falling helpless to the ground. No deer- 

 stalker ever felt more triumphant enthusiasm while 

 standing over the prostrate body of a buck, or fisher- 

 man when the silvery sides of a salmon sparkled in his 

 landing-net, than I felt as I picked up this great, and to 

 me, unknown bird. I afterward ranged the hillsides 

 for hours, with more or less success, waging a war on 

 these birds, which I found to be quite abundant, but 

 very strong-winged, and difficult to kill. I repeatedly 

 flushed them not ten yards from me, and, as they rose, 

 poured my whole charge, right and left, into them, 

 knocking out feathers, perhaps, but not killing the bird, 

 which, in defiance of all my hopes and expectations, 

 would carry off my shot to such a distance that I would 

 not follow him, even did I know he would never rise 

 again. Here, as elsewhere, I found these birds con- 

 fined to the vicinity of the sage bushes, from under 

 which they usually spring. 



"A few days later, on the shores of Wright and 

 Rhett lakes, we found them very abundant, and killed 

 all we cared to. A very fine male which I killed there 



