Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-11-11
GoINGLIKE THE BUFFALO.
Prairie Chickens Arc Growing
 Scarcer Every Season.
They Have Been Indiscrlminately Slaugh tered by Hunters-HOw the Fowls Protect Them
 .-E,l.

The exhilarating sport of hunting the prairie chicken on the plains of the west will soon be as extinct as that of shooting buffalo, says an Abilene cor respondent to the New York Advertiser The quick whir-r-r of the bird is heard less and less frequently, and the hunt CTS encounter far greater wariness than of old. Only n few years ago and the sportsman was in clover when he reached the prairics of Kansas. Spe- cial cars with hunters aboard, stopped in the midst of the level plains and when the men came back it was with shoulders heavily laden With the tooth some and attractive game.
 But the heartlesS and indiScriminate slaughter, in season and out of season, to which the different varieties of grouse and quail have been subjected during the past decade has almost ruined the sport on the plains of Kansas, Ne braSlla, Iowa and other sections of the west. To be sure there is yet game, but it has so decreased in quantity that the present season sees not one-tenth the amount that existed few years since.
 There is little sport more enticing than the shooting of prairie chickens or pinnatcd grouse. Nothing can be compared to it except the hunting of the wild turkey. While turkey is sought in the timber of the bottom lands the prairie chicken lives boldly out on the plain, and trusts to his keen ness of vision and rapid flight to pro tect himself. To creep upon flock of | the fowls at home is q sight to be re- membcred. The rich, plump bodies of the hens, shading from dark grayish brown on the breast and wings to a |, light gray neck and dark head, and the larger build of the males, with the dis tinguishing long black feathers on the neck, reaching down like the ends of a yoke, make a delicious contrast for the lover of rifle with the green of the l prairie sod.
 They are large enough to make a | good, legitimate prey; they are excel lent eating, tender, rich, gamcy. But | their outposts hear you and quick cluclling warning is given. In an in | stant every head drops, the bodies crouch close to the ground and ap- | parently disappear. Unless you are a | practical hunter you will declare that | half second has sufficcd for some of l the birds to sink into the earth. But l they arc all there. This one behind a l little grass clump, that in a tiny hollow made by some pOny's foot, another l spreading its wings as it squats at the l base of a weed stalk. To the amateur | eye it is remarkable if without consid- erable search more than two or three | can be detected, so closely do the cOlors | of the birds blend with the shadows and tints of the sod.
 Tho professional knows that they are | all there and the bunch is speedily 1 flushed. In an instant they rise about | you as if suddenly created from dust. One was less than yard from your | feet, yet you did not sec it. Their l flight is a peculiar one. Rising to a height of from twenty to fifty feet, they take horizontal course, churning the air rapidly with the stumpy wings until momentum is acquired, then sail ing with outstretched piuions for many rods. A prairie chicken is never nwll- ward or ridiculous except when in the air. On taking flight the birds do not, like quail, go as q flock, but radiatc in every direction, so that he is good gunner indeed who makes both barrels count.
 | The prairie chicken is non-migratory
 
 might be preserved for all time if af forelcd reasonable amount of protec tion. Grouse and quail can stand 2 comparatively close settlement of the country, at least one as close as most parts of the west will admit of. anC with the proper enforcement of rigidly drafted game laws, as well as q manly
 forbearancc on the part of the sports
 men themselves, would preserve tho
 now unequal ratio between the increase and slaughter. As it is now there i. practically no protection, and iron June to December the markets of west | ern cities show forbidden game. It i.
 not alone grouse, but quail, wild tur | keys and other varieties suffer. POach CTS go with dogs out of season and brin-
 in loads of the pretty game, and it find:
 it's way mysteriously into the stalls O the cities.
 Kansas and Nebraska have laws pro
 hibiting the killing or offering for sal, of birds except from September 1 t. January l. Yet so flagrantly has tn,
 law been violated that it has becom,
 necessary for SpOrtSmen'S clubs to Offc | purses for information regarding viola
 tion in order to prevent entire extermi
 nation. It will take but a short time tt
 put an end to the sport at the presen rate of decrease.
 The famous civilian scout Burgess
 who Is attached to the government pos
 in Yellowstone park, gives some inter esting facts regarding the increase O ;, game since severe measures have beer
 taken with the poaching trappcr. Tn
 elk, he says, are now in such abundanc
 that they promise to give game to tn
 hunter in season for many years t. come, while the buffalo are increasin, to such an extent that the park vii soon be well stocked. The same kind O
 vigorous measures will be necessary
 the western prairies are not to b stripped of the smaller as they hay been of the larger game.
 She Hated Dogs.
 An aged lady, who died recently in , Connecticut town, left the income O ) one hundred thousand dollars to b
 used in house painting. All who aI ' Dlied tO have their hOuSeS noin+e