SHOOTING THE PRAIRIE GROUSE 4Il 
passing to the southward during a season of cold, had 
ceased to be a source of wonderment. He says: 
“The prairie fowl had now completely thrown aside 
their summer habits. Instead of keeping apart in dis- 
tinct families, scattered over a vast extent of country, 
like our grouse at an earlier season, they now appeared 
congregated in immense flocks in the immediate vi- 
cinity of the farms. I had plenty of opportunity of 
studying their habits, but to shoot a few brace, as 
they were extremely wild, required frequently hours 
of patient and wary exertion; whereas at an earlier 
season a sportsman, if aided by a dog, might bag any 
quantity from the pertinacity with which they will lie 
close until forced to fly. 
“Tt appeared that at this time of the year all the birds 
within an area of three or four miles square congre- 
gated together by consent at sundown on a given spot 
in the rank dried grass of the unburmt prairie to 
sleep. Many a time have I seen them coming at sun- 
set from every point of the compass with their re- 
markable level and even flight over the swells of the 
prairie toward the place of rendezvous, which a few 
days’ observation enabled me to determine upon within 
a quarter of a mile, and twice I was on the prairie 
early enough to hear and see them rise, and the sight 
was stich as might make an English sportsman’s mouth 
water. The number must have amounted to many 
thousands, and the sound of their wings might be 
heard a very great distance. After rising for about 
half an hour they crowd the scattered trees on the edge 
