THE PINNATED GROUSE. "9 
This was followed by a series of explosions strongly 
suggestive of osculatory exercise, and afterwards by sev- 
eral an ‘‘ How-d’-ye-do,” which were evidently addressed 
to the masculine members of the company. 
I was introduced to the strangers “all in a lump,” soon 
after their arrival, and I then learned that they were the 
surprise party for whom the prairie fowl were so much 
wanted. They remained rather late, and spent the 
greater portion of the evening in dancing and singing, 
the instrumentalist in every instance being the fair Diana, 
who played as well as she shot and drove, while the 
automatic turner of the leaves of music was the 
Captain, who was as patient as he was assiduous, but 
whose only reward was severe criticisms of his awkward- 
ness as a leaf-turner and afowler. He received these with 
good-natured smiles, for their harmless purpose was evi- 
dently well understood. When the terpsichorean work of 
the evening was over, about midnight, the entire party 
sat down to a bounteous feast, in which prairie fowl 
formed the leading dish, and the manner in which they 
were shot and the ignominious defeat of our rivals the 
leading topic of conversation. When supper was finished 
the visitors wended their way homeward, and so ended 
St. Prairie Chicken Day in one of the most hospitable 
mansions in the State of Kansas. Miss Lucy, of course, 
received her wagers in due time, and, if events followed 
their natural order, she is now, in all probability, the 
honored spouse of Captain Blank, the State Senator for 
Blank County. 
I have been out after pinnated grouse late in the sea- 
son, when I could not bag more than two or three brace 
a day with heavy charges of No. 6 shot, and on more 
than one occasion I was glad to score a brace, for from 
November to January they are as wild as woodcock, and 
far more wary, as the least sound frequently routs them 
from covert, and sends them ten or twelve miles away be- 
