74 FIELD SHOOTING. 



on the wheat, the bare places of the prairie, 

 and on ploughed land all day-, and it is of no use 

 to go after them. You may just as well stay in 

 your tent or house as go after grouse, for you 

 cannot get near them. If there are quail in the 

 neighborhood, you may have sport with them. 

 In only one way can grouse be shot late in the 

 fall in cloudy, overcast weather, and it is hardly 

 worth while to employ that. You may drive up 

 in a buggy, as we do in plover-shooting, and so 

 get near enough, but it is more trouble than the 

 game you will kill is worth, and I never doj 

 it. I may say here that those who go out shoot-i 

 ing in the prairie States need to have a wagon or ■ 

 buggy with them. It may be done without, but 

 the work is very severe. The prairies are very 

 wide, and it is a good way from one favorable 

 point to another. When I first went to Illinois, 

 seventeen years ago, I used to start out in the 

 morning, on foot, and shoot all day. I used no 

 dog at all then, and had but a poor, light gun, 

 which did but little execution, though I shot 

 middling well. When I had got about seven 

 or eight grouse, I used to hide them and mark 

 the place, to be taken up on my way back. 

 With this gun I speak of and common pow- 



