280 UPLANB SHOOTING. 



at the sides of his neck until, like huge globes, it stands 

 out; the feathers are erect, or stick straight from his 

 swollen neck; then he quickly stoops, and running a few- 

 yards with agile steps, emits through his partly closed 

 bUl the confined air, and there bubbles forth, in a melo- 

 dious note, a soft "boo-woo-woo," until, by frequent 

 repetitions, the highlands and the lowlands are filled ^vith 

 this mellow peal of morning welcome. Welcome music 

 is this in the spring-time, for it brings to us the news of 

 approaching sport with these same birds, when their 

 young are strong of flight and vie with their parents in 

 size. 



There is a marked similarity between the male and the 

 female pinnated grouse, and among the young the sex 

 can not be distinguished; but when advancing age has 

 overtaken them, the bald neck of orange-yellow is a sure 

 indication that the possessor is of the sterner sex. The 

 colors of the birds are, one might say, but two — dark 

 brown and a grayish white; these colors wind around 

 their bodies in graceful wavy lines, and present a hand- 

 some appearance. Their forms are elegant in proportion, 

 and the f ull-groAvn pinnated grouse weighs about two and 

 a half pounds, at times as high as three pounds. They 

 are found in all the Western States bordering the Missis- 

 sippi or Jlissouri slopes. They frequent the grain-fields, 

 the corn-fields, and, most of all, they love the broad 

 prairies, where oceans of waving grass roll and heave in 

 apparently endless space. 



When spring-time comes, and Nature asserts herself, 

 they seek these sjpots to build their nests, to lay their 

 eggs, and to rear their young. In selecting a spot for 

 this, their home, they seek the grassy edges, rank with 

 the outgrowth of weeds, bordering some grain-field, the 

 corn-fields, along creeks, beside ponds, or a sunny slope 

 in the heart of the broad prairie, where the parent bird 



