262 FIELD SH00TIN0. 



at larks and blackbirds. If the commencement 

 of the shooting season is changed by law from 

 the fifteenth of August to the first of September, 

 as I hope it will be, the young birds will still 

 be sufficiently easy for the youthful sportsman. 

 As it is now, they might be a little difficult on 

 and after the first of September; for having been 

 shot at almost incessantly for the last sixteen days 

 in August, they have become rather wild, and 

 the feeble ones have all been killed. I am sa- 

 tisfied that if the grouse season opened on the 

 first of September, I could take a youth who 

 had practised at larks and blackbirds, as above 

 described, and had never seen a live grouse in 

 his life, and so instruct him in the field by 

 precept and example that his shooting should 

 improve right along, so that late in October 

 and November, he should often succeed in stop- 

 ping grouse, when, according to some who call 

 themselves sportsmen, they are so wild and diffi- 

 cult that they can ? t be killed with the gun at all. 

 But as the young sportsmen of the East have, 

 no chance at the grouse of Illinois, Iowa, etc., 

 and quail and snipe are too difficult to afford 

 fair practice for beginners, I should recommend 

 the youthful gunners to try their hands at the 



