104 lewis' AMERICAN SPORTSMAN. 



large watercourses, owing to several circumstances, all of which 

 an observant Sportsman will readily understand* 



Firstly. The previous winter having been remarkably mild 

 and open, few or no Birds were destroyed by exposure to cold ; 

 neither were they driven by the frequent scarcity of food into 

 the deceptive traps, or still more cruel tunnel-nets. 



Secondly. The following spring and summer months were 

 unusually dry, and especially suited for the purposes of hatch- 

 ing and rearing the young Brood, that often suffer so lament- 

 ably from the effects of a long-continued wet spell, as we have 

 before remarked under a different heading. 



Thirdly. The drought having extended through the summer, 

 and even autumn months, all the smaller streams and inland 

 watercourses became entirely dry ; and those sections of coun- 

 try thus failing in water, were abandoned en masse, by all the 

 Birds ; and this will account for their location among the hills 

 and stubble-fields, adjacent to the large river-courses. We met 

 this season with great numbers of Partridges on the large and 

 beautifully cultivated islands of the Susquehanna, but found it 

 rather difficult to shoot them, in consequence of the Birds, on 

 the first alarm, darting along and under the high river banks, 

 where they conceal themselves so securely that it is quite im- 

 possible to drive them out. Our friend C. T. Phillips, Esq., 

 killed this season sixty-one Birds in one day, which of itself is 

 sufficient to prove how numerous they must have been. Not 



* Game Abundant. — We learn from the Upper Mississippi country, that the 

 prairies in the vicinity of Keokuk and Rock Island, are teeming with Partridges, 

 in unheard-of abundance. Large numbers are now brought from those places 

 to the New Orleans market. A few days since we noticed on board of a steam- 

 bofit, coops containing one hundred and forty dozen of these Birds. Also the 

 steamer Saranak, on her last trip down, brought one hundred dozen. A gentle- 

 man informs us that a party with nets left Keokuk lately, and repaired to the 

 island below that town. They took four hundred Birds in a single afternoon. 

 Partridges sell in this market at 75 cents to $1 per dozen. In Keokuk, they can 

 be had at 40 to 50 cents per dozen. 



The St. Louis Evening News also states that large quantities of Grouse, Par- 

 tridges, Deer, and other game, are daily sent from that place, almost every steamer 

 carrying out as many as it can accommodate. They are shipped to various points 

 on the Ohio, and in many instances have been sent as far as Baltimore, Philadel- 

 phia, and New York. So large has this export been this season, that these arti- 

 cles are now commanding an unusually high rate at St. Louis. 



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