PRAIRIE CHICKENS. 



"When August and September days 

 Flush the broad prairies with their blaze, 

 The young broods, now matur'd, expand 

 Their wings and flutter o'er the land." 



One hundred years ago the pinnated grouse, or prairie ^«| 

 chicken, as it is generally termed, was comparatively abund- 

 ant in the East, particularly on the brushy plains of Long 

 Island, where it was known as the heath hen. Now, the ^»* 

 prairie chicken is essentially a Western game biixl, io\xr\(\'xv^.^/jt^ 

 numbers only in the region beyond the Mississippi, the ' 

 speciies having been exterminated in the East. 



North and South Dakota cover probably the best region for prairie 

 chicken shooting, and if the birds are properly protected during the close 

 season, and non-export laws rigidly enfoixed, the land of the 'Dakotas*^ 

 will furnish excellent recreation in this line for future generations. With 

 well-trained setters or pointers, ranging fast and free over the broad 

 prairie lands, where every movement of the dogs and the whirring flight 

 of the birds can be carefully noted by the sportsman, pinnated grouse 

 shooting stands well toward the front in the list of American field sports. 



RUFFED GROUSE. 



" Where greenwood shadows shift and swim, 

 As in cathedral arches dim. 

 There the shy partridge loves to brood, 

 Deep in the shelter of the wood." 



This woodland hermit — the pheasant of the East, and part- 

 ridge of the West — is a sort of country cousin of the pinnated 

 ^roj^l^, flp«pyj(fog^hipken. In its haunts and habits the ruffed 

 -gro^'sfe is alinost the opposite of his prairie relative. He seeks 

 the secluded thickets and dense woods, and will seldom lie to the 

 point of a dog, though a barking cur or " partridge dog " will fre- 

 quently tree him, and enable the gunner to shoot him from 

 ,-a limb — a proceeding not properly to be classed as sport. 

 The ruffed grouse is swift of flight, and, when 

 much pursued, is difficult to approach. The sportsman 

 who can kill a large percentage of his birds on the wing, 

 in thick cover such as the ruffed grouse frcciuents, may 

 certainly take rank as a crack shot, whether in the wild- 

 woods of W^isconsin or among the mountains of Maine. 



iir, 



