202 
FRANK FORESTER’S FIELD SPORTS. 
After this separation has once taken place, the birds, both 
young and old, are so wild that they will rarely or never lie to 
be pointed by a dog, unless they are found by chance in some 
very dense brake or grass-grown thicket, in which they cannot 
run ; and consequently there is no chance of having any sport 
with them, after they have once ceased to keep company. 
This, I think, they invariably do, before the law permits that 
they should be shot. Consequently, although I have often 
been in regions where they abound, I have never found it worth 
the while to go out to hunt for them especially. They are a 
bird of a very rambling disposition, here to-day and miles off to¬ 
morrow, frequenting the roughest and most inaccessible moun¬ 
tain-sides, evergreen thickets, and woods of hemlock, pine or 
red cedar • and I have never seen, and never expect to see the 
place where a sportsman can be sure of getting a dozen shots 
over points, or even half that number, in a day’s hard walking. 
Add to this, that if the Ruffed Grouse be the particular object 
of pursuit, there is no chance of finding any other species of 
game, unless it be a few Hares ; for the haunts of this solitary 
and mountain-loving misanthrope are too wild and rude for 
the domestic Quail, and too arid for the Woodcock. 
In autumn shooting, stragglers are often met on Quail 
ground, in low thickets, bog-meadow edges, and the like, and 
then they afford good sport, and often make a great addition to 
the bag; but the only way is to take them as you find them, 
and if you find them, be thankful; but never deviate from your 
regular line of beat in order to find, or to follow them ; if you 
do, sure disappointment awaits you. The best day I ever had 
with Ruffed Grouse, was in the low, dense thickets on the edge 
of the Big Piece, in New-Jersey, in the winter of 1837; when 
there were a vast quantity of Quail in that region; but I had 
not the least expectation of finding more than a chance strag¬ 
gler or two of the Grouse. With a friend, however, I bagged 
eight brace of these birds, fairly pointed, which I consider great 
sport , as I have never before or since seen an opportunity of 
doing a quarter of the work, though I have taken long joumevs 
