62 FIELD SHOOTING. 



useless, as they can neither see you nor you them, 

 and no instructions can be given to them. The 

 early season is the time for young beginners, as 

 the broods are then numerous and easily found. 

 If the shooting was not allowed before September, 

 it would answer the purpose of teaching the no- 

 vices quite as well ; for though the birds would 

 be somewhat stronger on the wing, they would lie 

 just as close, and would be larger. After the 

 broods have been shot at two or three weeks, 

 they are thinned out considerably, and have be- 

 come much wilder. They are then of fine size, 

 the weather has become cooler, and the birds can 

 be kept. At least half of the young grouse killed 

 in the month of August become spoiled and are 

 never used. Some may doubt this, but I state 

 what I know to be facts. In August the weather 

 is very often close and sultry ; for though there 

 is commonly some air on the wide prairies, the 

 breezes do not then prevail. 



At the beginning of the shooting season the 

 grouse will be found at early morning in the stub- 

 bles. They have gone out of their roosting-places 

 to feed . in the stubbles of the wheat and oat fields, 

 which have then been pretty well overgrown with 

 rag-weed, and afford thick cover. Where flax u 



