PRAIRIE-CHICKEN SHOOTING. 197 
cackle, and the flight, except of young birds, is very long. 
In the commencement of the season, and in fact as long as 
the weather is bright and mild, they lie remarkably well to 
dogs; but severe and cold weather causes them to pack 
and become wild. However, late in October, or even in 
November, if you should hit upon a warm, summer-like day, 
the birds will become so disinclined for exertion between 
the hours of 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. that marvelous bags can be 
made. 
As food this bird can favorably compare with any of the 
grouse family, but is dissimilar in one respect from all the 
others—that the sooner it is cooked after being killed, the 
more delicate and savory it will be found. Even the skill 
of Delmonico, of New York, the justly-celebrated restaurant 
proprietor, with all his knowledge of cuisine, can not impart 
the delicate flavor that the same bird would have from the 
hands of the most ignorant cook, provided it were served a 
few hours after being killed. 
This grouse can easily be domesticated. Mr. Audubon, 
the naturalist, for some time kept quite a number in a wall- 
ed garden, where they became as tame as domestic fowls; 
from this circumstance I do not believe there would be any 
difficulty in transporting them across the Atlantic. To gen- 
tlemen stocking preserves, or desirous of being able to show 
a great variety of game upon their estate, this magnificent 
member of the grouse genus ought to receive attention. 
The best prairie-chicken shooting I have ever had was 
in the month of October; and although September had 
been both wet and boisterous, yet the birds had not pack- 
ed, and lay well. Day after day I killed from twenty brace 
upward, and this in the northern portion of Illinois, with a 
fourteen-bore, light-made, twenty-six-inch-barreled gun. I 
have little hesitation in saying that, if I had had a ten-bore, 
which I now always use for general shooting in America, 
