188 rPLA>'T) SHOOTIXG. 



the rule, and in the heat of the day you will have the best 

 luck almost at the waters edge. In fact, if you are after 

 trout, you will often want to temporarily exchange the 

 split bamboo for a gun, and if you are after grouse, you 

 will long for your rod, that you may try some specially 

 inviting pool or riffle, upon wliich you come most unex- 

 pectedly. The birds never outgrow their disposition to 

 hide, and the smallest tussock or clump of leaves serves 

 their purpose. They lie well to the dog, and without a 

 dog you will almost step upon them before becoming 

 aware of their proximity; but when they rise, there is 

 nothing to equal their swift, strong, straight-away flight. 

 If a brood is carefully marked down, they may all be 

 brought to bag, as nothing but a rock wall will make them 

 vary their line of direction. In spring, and until the 

 young are able to fly. the Indians of the Xorthwest have 

 a superstitious horror of killing or eating a sooty grouse. 

 AYhy the bird should, at this particular season, be espe- 

 cially sacred to the Great Spirit, I can not tell, but it is 

 certain that the Indian believes that ill-luck and disaster 

 will follow the slayer of a newly mated or breeding ' 'chief- 

 bird; " but once the game season opens, their conscien- 

 tious sci'uples vanish in an instant, and any means of 

 extermination, fair or foul, are legitimate vdth them. 

 Some of the coast Indians dry the birds in the sun, or 

 smoke them for a season, and, while the flesh is never 

 thoroughly cured, as is venison, an Indian's stomach can 

 stand a meal from this half -prepared pemican long after 

 it is too ■ ' high ' ' for a civiUzed tourist. The sportsman 

 in going for grouse can not find all kinds in any one loca- 

 tion. If he takes the Union Paciiic route, he wiU find 

 himself in the region of the Columbian sharp-tailed grouse. 

 If he travel over the northern route, very few sharp-tails, 

 but plenty of sooty and dusky grouse, will find their way 

 to his bag as he moves westward from the main chain of 



