UPLAND SHOOTING. 
240 
selves poach and pot-hunt, is absolutely inexplicable andjncon- 
ceivable. I trust that this notice, from which I have purposely 
withheld the names of the offenders, in order to avoid personali¬ 
ty, will deter them from the like criminality in future against the 
letter and spirit of the laws, which should rule all true sportsmen. 
In Martha’s Vineyard they are so strictly preserved, that 
I have never taken the trouble of travelling thither on the chance 
of obtaining permission to shoot at them, although I am well 
aware that there are sportsmen from New York who resort 
thither yearly in pursuit of them. 
On the barrens of Kentucky, where they formerly abounded, 
as in the Eastern States, they have become extinct; and, in truth, 
unless the sportsman is prepared to travel so far as Chicago, St. 
Joseph’s, or St. Louis, he has not much chance of obtaining any¬ 
thing to reward his pains, in the way of Grouse shooting; and 
it is, perhaps, worth observing, that in the present advanced 
state of internal communication with the Western Country, 
there is no real difficulty, and no great expense, in the way of 
the adventurer who would try his fortune on the Heath-Hen in 
its own wild haunts. The facilities of steamboat travel are par¬ 
ticularly favorable to the transportation of dogs ; and it would, 
doubtless, well repay a party to set off at any time after the 
first of September, with a strong kennel, for the prairies. 
This Grouse breeds early, the nest being generally finished 
on the first of May; the eggs are rarely more than twelve in 
number, the hen sits eighteen or nineteen days, and the young 
run so soon as they are hatched. This species never raises a 
second brood, unless the first is destroyed. About the first of 
August the young are about equal in size to the Quail, and are, 
I regret to say, at that age, and a little older, butchered, and 
pronounced excellent eating by men who take the name of 
sportsmen. 
A writer in the “ Turf Register,” under the title of “Tom 
Trigor,” a fellow of infinite humor, and of so very correct 
opinions on a great variety of topics, that I marvel at his prac¬ 
tice in regard to Grouse, discourses thus on the habits and 
modes of shooting this bird, as he understands them:— 
