Mexico weekly ledger. (Mexico, Mo.) 1855-1956, 1891-10-29
ABSOLUTELY PURE
some neighboring farmer as to

some neighboring farmer as to
| WHERE HE SAW THEM LAST
and where they usually go when
| frightened.
7 If the stubble field be large those
/ parts nearer standing corn or other
cover should be hunted first, and
| then go down the little swales near
where dense small weed patches are
apt to cluster. If stubble be large
they may roost there over night and
be found next morning, anywhere.
The prairie chicken, like all others
Of the grouse family, has the habit
after being scattered, of returning to
| the old place to gather up. They
invariably walk back, or run rather
often with low plaintive call
coming, l have known, a distance
Of a mile in an hour. So if you
have had poor luck on the first flush
especially in the afternoon, and
they have gone to such cover that
You cannot follow, pass on to other
grounds and return that way later,
when you will likely find two-thirds
of the original flock near the old,
point.
After the birds have been much
| hunted and the season has advanced
they cease to be found in their usual
haunts. By age and rain the stub
BILE fails to be attractive and the
abundance of grasshoppers at this
season enables them to find food
anywhere. Later they appear to
break up into small flocks and are
even found singly in the corn. 1t
is we'll now to have cautions dog
and large shot in your gun, for they
get up far of. | am an advocate of
large shot for this game even earlier,
especially in "a repeater" You
may bag many bird at long range
that
SMALL SHOT WOULD NOT STOP.
After the frosts have Drowned the
vegetation the season for success at
chicken hunting is about over.
There may be a few warm days in
October when they are lazy enough
to lie to a dog, but the hunter is apt
to find quail enough to entertain
him now. This grouse's wiater hab-
its of collecting in large focks and
sitting on fences and forest in cold
weather. besides being a thing of
the past, interests the pot hunter
rather than the sportsman. | have
glanced at methods OF hunting this
bird as now practiced in the middle
West. | have not mentioned the
old style-the best style-of taking
wagon and driver and good COM
panions, with plenty of dogs, water,
lunch, ETC.. and "making day Of it,"
Of cutting the virgin prairies in zig
gag lines as the land lay, the wind
blew, or dogs shifted or trailed;
with no fence Of wire or hedge to
climb, no herds to dodge, nor farmer
to shout you out; with no limit on
you but your strength and ammu-
milton, except the setting Of an Au-
gust sun; with no waving corn6eld
and its hopeless cover, and with
birds so plenty that sport, in spite
OF inward qualms, would border
onto butchery. These days are gone
except in the far West and North,
and there are going fast. Perhaps
it is best. The touchy farmer of
to-day, with his broad grass lots and
his herds, is preserving to US at
home this noble bird, so that now
and then we may be invited out to
flush well-watched flock, or sneak
| out a day or so before the other
boys and have
o, SUCH A DAY!
and not feel good till the next grand
jury has ceased its sitting.
Give us a cloudy morn in middle
August with threat of MONDAY
clearing-the air cool and moving
not too strong but constantly. Let
the earth be damp from a recent rain
and the little washes full OF bath
pools for the dogs. Give US high
headed pointer or setter-I care not
| which-for fiocks-a far and rapid
ranger controlled by whistle or
wave of hand-stanch and cautious
on the scent. Even two Of them
are better. And then, near in, slow
Icareful trailer-a setter here-that
hounds the very bugs and threads
the 'sblue stem" or stnbble like a
snake, with quivering chops and
muscles taut and steady. Give
us all these in one dog if you can
and call rs blessed, but above all
range and caution. And now re.
peating Winchester with No. Z shot
Don't let your practice on recent
doves or last fall quail induce you
to hold too tar ahead. STEADY Sport
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