GENERAL INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 29 



commonly called the rabbit, used to abound 

 about Elkhart. I and another man, by beating 

 the hedges, one on each side, after the first snow, 

 when there was about four inches on the ground, 

 once killed a hundred and sixty in a day. They 

 decreased at one time, but recently they have 

 been getting numerous again, and there is now a 

 good head of them. The abundance of game in 

 any given year depends very much upon the 

 breeding season, for there are commonly old ones 

 left to raise a good stock. If the spring is warm 

 and moderately dry, the broods of quail and 

 grouse are large, and the young birds grow up 

 strong, so as to be able to fly fast and go a 

 good distance when the shooting season begins. 

 When the spring is cold and wet, many broods 

 are lost through the nests being drowned out. 

 The broods which are hatched out are small, and 

 the young birds have a hard time of it until 

 summer begins. The last spring was a very 

 favorable one in the West, and grouse and quail 

 are numerous and strong. Farmers who had seen 

 many nests of grouse told me that in most in- 

 stances every egg had been hatched out, and in 

 June I saw myself as many as twelve young 

 grouse in a gang. All the old ones that I ob- 



