RUFFED-GROUSE SHOOTING. 115 



grouse could be heard drumming in all directions. 

 It is a flat, alluvial country, much of the bottom- 

 land being overflowed early in spring, as all the 

 wot prairies thereabouts are ; but, nevertheless, 

 these bottoms abounded with grouse in the breed- 

 ing-season. 



The ruffed grouse can seldom be relied upon to 

 fill the game-bag alone ; for the most part it is 

 sparsely and thinly distributed over the regions it 

 inhabits, though in some secluded spots where 

 they have not been disturbed a good number may 

 sometimes be killed in the fall before the broods 

 have dispersed. It is as wild in disposition as 

 any bird that flies. The young of the pinnated 

 grouse may be brought up in confinement, but I 

 do not think those of the ruffed grouse can be 

 reared in the same way. I began to shoot ruffed 

 grouse, when still a boy, in the neighborhood of 

 Burnville, Albany County, New York, in company 

 with a man named Paul Hochstosser. He was a 

 hunter by calling, and a good one, well versed in 

 the woodcraft of the region, and the best shot 

 with the double-barrelled gun then in those parts. 

 The first bird I ever killed was a ruffed grouse 

 perched in a hemlock-tree. He was on an arm 

 close to the trunk of the tree, bolt upright, with 



