THE RUFFED GROUSE AND ITS WAYS 



157 



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ROADING 



to jump into the air on his sudden 

 flights, for it certainly takes a great deal 

 of fast wing-beating to get such a large 

 bodied bird under way, as every one 

 knows who is at all familiar with hunt- 

 ing our king of all game birds, but once 

 under way the bullet-like flight can only 

 be stopped by one who is an experienced 

 sportsman, being both a quick and a 

 crack shot combined, and who, by the 

 way, takes his time, yet never looses 

 any. Of course, on a straight-away shot 



Quite often in winter, when 



the snow is very deep, and 1 he 

 weather is extremely severe, 

 the grouse, like the bob white, 



will dive under the snow for 

 protection, and there, like an 

 Eskimo in his snow covered 

 hut, lie is well - sheltered 

 from a severe storm. The 

 grouse never seeks company 

 on any of these occasions, hut 

 like a solitary little hermit he 

 buries himself alone, while on 

 the other hand the bob whites 

 nestle together in snug little 

 family parties ; but, alas, for 

 any of them, if on one of 

 these occasions an impenetrable ice 

 crust forms on the snow, as it is sure 

 to seal up our feathered friends to die 

 of starvation in their ice-bound prison. 

 These sad tragedies have been re- 

 ported often of the quail, when the 

 spring thaws have revealed a circle 

 of feathered skeletons all huddled to- 

 gether. Early in March one year, 

 I remember finding the skeleton of 

 a grouse under a rail fence, where 



the snow 



during 



that winter had 



the whole thing lies in getting the bead drifted as high as the top bars, and hav- 

 on your bird and then touching your ing had several sleety rains followed by 

 trigger at the same instant, but just let hard freeze tips that January, it was un- 

 one of these fellows come sweeping doubtedly in some such storm the poor 

 across your path after your hunting bird was caught under the snow, and 

 companion has shouted, "Mark, mark !" being locked in by a crust fully a half 

 then, if you pull the instant you see the inch thick it made struggling out im- 

 bird at the end of your bar- 

 rel, you need not be sur- W» U llMilWIHIBIIili^ ^ 

 prised to find that you have 

 shot several feet behind him. 

 Many a time as a novice I 

 have stood with open mouth 

 after two successive shots at 

 one of these right angle shots 

 and watched our coveted 

 game bird disappear in the 

 woods beyond. Yet it is all 

 these little hardships which 

 make one feel that he has 

 done some work when one of 

 the fellows is brought to bag, 

 and afterwards makes your 

 game supper not one of the 

 market kind. watching a flushed bird 



