i 



work. In all other bird shooting dogs are used 

 principally as retrievers, but in upland shooting they 

 do most of the work. This sport is at its best 

 near civilization, as the birds are usually found in 

 farming country. 



Ducks flourish in the bleak, northern v^lder- 

 ness, but not so our upland game birds. Besides 

 the food they get from the grain fields, their natural 

 enemies are fewer. 



GROUSE AND WOODCOCK 



Probably no two upljmd game birds are better 

 known and appreciated by sportsmen than the 

 grouse and woodcock. They combine to a high 

 degree those traits that make them worthy of the 

 hunter's skill. The woodcock is a recluse, and his 

 range is small ; but wherever there are trees and 

 running water, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 

 we find the ruffled grouse or his brothers. 



Their movements seem shrouded in mystery. 

 To-day, the alder thickets may be deserted, save 

 for an occasional grouse ; and to-morrow the hunt- 

 er's bag will overflow. In Massachusetts there 

 are, as a rule, two flights. The first, coming about 

 the time of the first frost, is composed of the birds 

 that have gone far north to breed ; the second is 

 the Northern flight. The birds composing the first 

 flight are found in the alders and bottoms ; but the 

 second flight birds, strange to relate, seem to prefer 

 ,f.' 60 



