294 AMERICAN GAME. 
their bodies erect, and their necks elongated, and might 
have been killed easily, the only difficulty being that of 
perceiving them, a difficulty far more considerable than 
would be imagined to-an unpracticed eye. To shoot 
birds sitting, however, whether on trees or on the ground, 
is not sport for a sportsman; the only case where it is 
ever allowable, is to the woodsman on a tramp through 
the primitive and boundless forest, where his camp- 
kettle must be filled by the contents of his bag, and 
where to throw away a chance is, perhaps, in the end to 
go supperless to bed. In such a case, while canoeing it 
last Autumn “ with a goodly companye” up the northern 
rivers that debouch into lake Huron, we shot many, 
while portaging around cataracts or rapids on the 
Severn ; and on one occasion a gentleman of the party 
shot three birds, out of one small pine tree, without any 
of them moving or appearing alarmed at the gun-shots. 
This has often been related as a constant and ordinary 
habit of the bird; and from that occurrence, I am 
induced to believe that when the bird is in its natural 
solitudes, unacquainted with man and his murderous 
weapons, such may be the case; in the settlements, 
however it might have been when they were rare and 
sparse, this is the habit of the Ruffed Grouse no longer. 
I have never in my life, save in the instance mentioned, 
observed anything of the kind; on the contrary, I have 
ever found them the wildest, the most wary, and unless, 
