68 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING. 
the dogs are ranging widely, the men can follow them 
in the carriage, and alight when the animals come toa 
point. It also enables them to travel rapidly after flushed 
packs, so that little time is wasted in searching for them. 
The best regions for pinnated grouse are the tier of 
States running north from Texas to Manitoba, and west 
from Illinois to the Rocky Mountains. Of these the pref- 
erence might, perhaps, be given to Wisconsin, Iowa, 
Minnesota, Dakota, and portions of Colorado and the 
Indian Territory. It is nothing unusual for a farmer to 
bag two or three thousand birds in a season in some of 
these places, with an old muzzle-loader, but the number 
shot by market hunters cannot even be estimated. I 
heard a very well-informed sportsman say that from half 
a million to a million birds were killed annually in Iowa 
alone, and allowing that the same destruction, in propor- 
tion to their numbers, takes place in other States, one 
can readily imagine the havoc committed among them. 
This statement is probably in no way exaggerated, as it is 
well known that many persons who supply the market 
often trap from one to two thousand birds in a week, 
especially in snowy weather, and sell them so cheaply 
that the poorest class of laborers can indulge in game 
dinners. 
One of the most interesting scenes of its character 
to be met with anywhere, is that visible on the prairies 
as soon as the shooting season opens, on the fifteenth of 
August; for on that day sulkies, phaetons, wagons, and 
traps of various kinds may be seen travelling over the 
emerald sea of grass; eager men and dogs range in all 
directions; the sky is peppered with flying packs; many 
miniature clouds of powder smoke hang in the air or 
lazily float along; while the detonations of the guns come 
ringing from every quarter, and the rapid flashes are fol- 
lowed by showers of feathers. These incidents may not 
be such as to appeal to the highest moral law, yet few 
