UPLAND SHOOTING. 
255 
The Grouse invariably makes a clucking noise when it takes 
wing before a dog, and if it rises within distance, is a very easy 
shot. No. 8 early in the season, and later No. 5, are the best 
sizes of shot. After that, I should prefer red Ely’s cartridges, 
of No. 5 shot, which I will be bound to say will fetch them 
from a good twelve or fourteen guage gun of proper weight, 
held by a quick hand, and levelled by a true eye, at any period 
of the season. 
Mr. Audubon observes, contrary to the remarks cited above 
from Wilson and Dr. Mitchill, that the Grouse drinks when in 
a state of nature, like the common fowl, and farther, that it is 
exceedingly susceptible of domestication, even breeding freely 
in captivity. 
The remarks with regard to beating with dogs for the Quail 
and Ruffed Grouse, and for shooting both these birds on the 
wing, except so far as they are here modified, are all applica¬ 
ble to the Prairie or Heath-Hen. 
The flesh of this bird is not white, like that of the Ruffed 
Grouse, but red, like that of the Scottish Moor Fowl, which in 
many respects it resembles. It has more of the bitter taste 
than the Ruffed Grouse, and is, in my opinion, a decidedly 
superior bird. It will bear to be hung for some days, or even 
weeks in cold weather, and is to be cooked and eaten accord¬ 
ing to the direction given under the last head. 
In conclusion, it is well to state here, that there is certainly 
no distinction whatsoever between the Heath-Hen of Long 
Island and Martha’s Vineyard, the Grouse of the pines and 
scrub oaks of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and the Prairie- 
Hen of the West. 
They are all one and the same bird—the Pinnated Grouse, 
Tetrao Cupido , of the ornithologist, and emphatically the 
Grouse of the sportsman. 
Of the Canada, or Spotted Grouse, it is in vain to speak, for 
he is not as yet to be shot, and I apprehend never will be, in 
sporting style. The ground in which to find him is the deep 
larch and cedar woods, especially the former, of Maine, Nova 
VOL. i. 19 
