FOREST AND STREAM 
1081 
“In an early day Illinois was a paradise for the 
prairie chicken, but as the prairies were trans¬ 
formed into corn fields, hunters became more 
numerous, weapons more effective and game 
protection a negligible quality, the prairie chicken 
seemed doomed to extinction, but fortunately the 
sportsmen’s press succeeded in arousing the leg¬ 
islatures to the importance of protecting these 
noble birds. Adequate laws were passed, the 
birds were given complete protection, with the 
result that the prairie chicken has come back to 
the State of Illinois in considerable numbers. 
To-day it is possible to flush prairie chickens 
within the limits of Chicago. 
“If this can be done in Illinois it can be done in 
any state of the Union, and there are good 
grounds for questioning the wisdom of spending 
thousands of dollars in an effort to introduce 
foreign game birds, which, at most, are but game 
chickens, when we have a nobler game bird, na¬ 
tive to our soil that simply asks for a living- 
chance to repopulate our prairies, marshes and 
corn fields. A quarter of a century ago the prai¬ 
rie chicken was unknown in Northern Wisconsin 
and the peninsula of Michigan. These sections 
were, in those days, a land of pine and spruce, 
but as the timber was cleared away, and the 
fields opened, they have been gradually possessed 
by the prairie chicken, and likewise they have 
followed the settlers who have invaded the cat¬ 
tle ranges of Montana and Wyoming. 
“There is no more pleasant sport in the world 
than prairie chicken shooting in September, and 
fortunately for the sportsman, there are many 
places in the West where these birds are plenti¬ 
ful. 
“Two years ago there was no difficulty in flush¬ 
ing twenty to thirty coveys a day, within twenty- 
five miles of the thriving city of Aberdeen, S. D. 
The reports of the All-America Field Trial Club, 
one of the principal sportsman’s organization in 
this country devoted to the development of the 
setter and the pointer, record the flushing of 
from twenty to thirty coveys a day during their 
trials in Dakota. 
“Much of the charm of prairie chicken shoot¬ 
ing is in the work of the dog, and while there is 
always more or less dispute over the relative 
merits of the pointer and the setter, it is gener¬ 
ally agreed that for prairie work, the pointer has 
many advantages: his coat is thinner, conse¬ 
quently he stands the heat better, and can go 
longer without water, and finally there is some¬ 
thing in the nature of the pointer, handed down 
perhaps from his hound ancestry, that makes him 
more effective in the solving of the problem of 
the running grouse, than the more spaniel-like 
traits of his long-haired brother.” 
The sportman who is contemplating a prairie 
chicken hunt should look well to his dogs. He 
should have at least two well trained, and four 
are better, for the work is exhausting, and they 
should be hunted in relays, as the range of the 
prairie chicken is so wide that the dogs must go 
fast and cover great stretches of country. It is 
also highly important that they be carefully con¬ 
ditioned by at least two weeks of road work. 
The birds during the first week of September 
usually remain together—that is in their original 
coveys—and as a rule lie well for dogs, but 
after they have been flushed a few times and 
fired upon they become warier. The early frosts 
also seem to have a great deal to do in tuning 
up their sense, so that after the ist of October 
they are strong, sturdy, fast flying birds, well 
coated with feathers and about as wise and 
sporty a proposition as the sportsmen could 
meet with. No longer do they linger in the 
grass to be nosed out by some old pottering dog 
or booted by the hunter. 
The outfit for a successful prairie chicken hunt 
consists of a good team of horses, a strong 
spring wagon, that will carry in addition to the 
sportsman, a driver who knows the country, a 
crate for the dogs, a keg of water, and the vari¬ 
ous impedimenta of the- sportsman out for an all 
day’s hunt. 
Get started early in the morning if you would 
find the bird feeding on the stubble, for shortly 
after sunrise they either work off to the grass 
lands or take refuge in some weed fields, some¬ 
times flying considerable distances to favored 
sloughs where they can escape the heat of the 
day and rest undisturbed. Later in the after¬ 
noon they repair again to the stubble fields, and 
the experienced sportsman accepts the habits of 
the birds, and searches for them only early in the 
morning or late in the afternoon, resting during 
the heat of the day. 
In prairie chicken hunting there is a constant 
interest in watching the dogs, as they work up 
into the wind, feeling with their delicate noses, 
for the scent of the birds. When the dog points 
it is well to get to him promptly as the prairie 
chicken is a running bird, and frequently draws 
steadily away from the pointing dogs. Some 
men walk in with their dogs to flush the birds. 
The disadvantage of this procedure lies in the 
fact that the prairie chicken, like all other wild 
animals when in danger, works out of the wind 
— that is they aim to get down wind of their 
enemies, so that the dog that has been pointing 
up wind when he moves forward loses the scent 
(Continued on page 1116.) 
A Wise Setter Pointing Prairie Chickens by Sight in an Illinois Corn Field. 
