Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER IIL PINNATED-GROUSE SHOOTINO. The pinnated grouse, commonly called prairie- chicken where it is most abundant in the West, is a handsome bird, weighing from two pounds to two and a half pounds, sometimes nearly three when it has reached mature size. It is a delicious bird on the table, cither when split and broiled while young, the flesh being then white, or roasted when of full size. It formerly prevailed in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Long Island, and Kentucky, in parts where there were open heaths; but it is not now found until the valley of the Mississippi is reached. There are none in Ohio, but few in Indiana and Michigan; but it is plentiful in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, and parts of Missouri and Wisconsin. The pinnated grouse is a bird of the grassy plains and great prairies, and does not frequent the woodland, save on frosty mornings, when it may be seen perched on trees near the edges of the groves. At such times, too, it will be seen perched on fences and corn-shocks.On such mornings, when the weather is still as well as chilly, the grouse may be heard cackling and chattering in tho timber-land for a considerable distance inwards, but on other occasions they never resort to the groves. This bird is certainly of much service to the agriculturist, as it consumes many grasshoppers and other destructive insects, while the little wheat, corn, and oats it eats does not amount to anything by comparison. Indeed, its food, before the wheat- land is in stubble, is probably wholly composed of insects and the buds of heather and other plants to be found in the prairies and in the spacious pastures of the West. Before the great prairies of Illinois and otherWestern States were broken up by the plough of the settler, the grouse were more numerous than th...
