SHOOTING THE WOODS GROUSE 371 
other game bird. With those who may vaunt the ex- 
cellence of the woodcock, the snipe, the prairie chicken, 
the duck, the turkey, etc., it also holds a high place in 
their esteem; and the exceptional man, whose fancy 
for one particular kind of bird prejudices him against 
all others, will not speak unkindly of it. And yet, 
delicious as it is when properly prepared for the table, 
it can easily be spoiled by ill cooking, and of bad cooks 
there is no end. The art of cooking it properly is as 
rare as is the skill of killing it properly. If it be cooked 
too much, or if it be cooked improperly, it loses much 
of its rich delicacy of flavor and texture, and becomes 
dry and unpalatable; and in that unfortunate condi- 
tion it probably was, when that eminent authority, Wil- 
son, partook of it, and thereafter, in his ‘““American 
Ornithology,” wrote of it: “At these inclement sea- 
sons, however, they are generally lean and dry, and, 
indeed, at all times their flesh is far inferior to that 
of the quail or of the pinnated grouse.”” Yet, as tastes 
are not all alike, the superlative will probably be placed 
according to the individual fancy in matters of food, 
as in all other matters, and it is well that it is so. If 
all fancied alike, all would be monotony. Nevertheless, 
a man who cannot have a culinary spell cast over him 
by a skilfully cooked ruffed grouse, it having been kept 
a proper length of time after killing—not too long— 
has no music in his soul, and may not even be fit for 
treason and spoils. 
The ruffed grouse chooses rough and timbered sec- 
tions, for it is strictly a bird of the woods and thick- 
