198 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 
my score would have been at least double. As it was I 
saved nearly every bird, for in the numerous shipments 
which I made to a wide circle of acquaintances I did not 
hear of one arriving at its destination unfit for the table. 
Now, in September this would have been impossible, 
though hours had been spent over each packing-case, and 
the expected hamper contained at starting as much ice and 
a little more charcoal than game. Some knowing hands 
profess that by immediately drawing the fowl upon being 
knocked over, and stuffing a wisp of grass in the cavity, 
putrefaction will be delayed; but what an agreeable opera- 
tion to have to perform! Fancy stopping in the middle of 
a covey, with dogs standing, to perform the functions of 
the kitchen-maid !—the humanity or refinement of the pro- 
ceeding, the afterward loading and handling your handsome 
breech-loader with your well-daubed hands! or, perhaps, in 
a fit of desperation, caused by the attack of some blood- 
thirsty mosquito, giving your nose or forehead the benefit 
resulting from your labor! But it is too horrible to think 
of. All these drawbacks can be warded off or prevented 
by not shooting till the weather is suitable; or, better still, 
not permitting shooting till such a date as we have reason 
to expect a sufficiently cool temperature; making it action- 
able for game-dealers to expose for sale the temporarily for- 
bidden treasures before the termination of the close season. 
Gentlemen of America, if you wish to keep game abundant, 
and near home, and to increase and preserve the fine feel- 
ings that should imbue the breast of every true sportsman, 
devote a little attention to this important point. 
Like the deer, bear, and sundry varieties of American 
game, which once were to be found in abundance in almost 
every section of the country, so was the prairie-chicken ; 
but as civilization and population have increased, in such a 
ratio their numbers have diminished. In Kentucky, forty 
