UPLAND SHOOTING. 
259 
strong on the wing, and hereabouts, at least, wild enough at times 
during that month to task the best gun that ever was fired. The 
sport is best, however, in September and October. During these 
months the killing heat of the summer weather, which sometimes 
proves fatal to men, and frequently to dogs and horses on the 
prairie, is moderated; the birds acquire an increase of strength, 
but not of size, and get under way in a shorter time after rising 
than during the summer. They do not lie so well before the 
dog, but the scent of the Grouse seems so strong, that most 
pointers stand at the distance of from ten to twenty yards from 
them, unless in very warm weather: and it is certainly much 
more satisfactory to bag a wild, wary bird than to secure a tame 
victim. After the cold weather we sometimes have on the prai¬ 
ries early in September, the Grouse will sometimes rise for days 
together entirely out of range. But in those days, either of Sep¬ 
tember or October, when the morning is chill and frosty, and the 
middle of the day calm and warm, the best Grouse shooting of 
the whole year may be had. If they are driven from the corn 
and stubble fields at this time, just as they have completed their 
morning feed, marked down in the open prairie, and let alone for 
an hour or two, the sport is really magnificent. It is not uncom¬ 
mon at such times, to find them scattered over a space ranging 
from 20 to 60 acres. Not more than two or three will be found 
so near together as to be flushed at the same time, and very often 
they are pointed singly. They rise, to be sure, with a strong 
pinion, and get under way in an instant, but still they cannot be 
termed hard to kill, I think. I never shoot smaller shot at 
Grouse than No. 6, and after the tenth of September I shoot 
No. 5. When No. 8 or No. 7 will stop them, they are too 
young to be shot at all. The instances are comparatively few of 
their flying off with their death wound, whereas nothing is more 
common than for the Quail to do this. There is little occasion 
for shooting the birds at a greater distance than forty yards, and 
the bulk of the shots are at birds within thirty yards, during the 
month of September. In October it is sometimes otherwise, but 
