The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1892-12-23
GOINGLIKET THE BUFFALO
Prairie Chickens Are Growing
Scarcer Every Season
They Have Been Indiscriminately Slaugh-
tered by Uunters-How the
Fowls Protect Them

tered by Hunters-HoW the
Fowls Protect Them
selves
The exhiIarating 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
ers encounter far greater wariness
than of old. Only a few years ago and
the sportsman was in clover when he
reached the prairies of Kansas Spe-
cial ears 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
brasl<a, Iowa and other sections of the
west. To be sure there is yet game,
but il has so decreased in quantity that
the present season sees not one-tenth
since.
There is little sport more enticing
than the shooting of prairie chickens
or pinnated 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
z a tTrht to
tect himself. To creep upon flock of
the fowls at home is n 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 a rifle with the green of the
prairie sod.
They are large enough To make
good, legitimate prey; they are excel
lent eating, tender, rich, gamey. But
their outposts hear you and n quick,
cluclIing warning is given. In an in
slant every head drops, the bodies
crouch close to the ground and APP
parently disappear. Unless you are a
practical hunter you will declare that
half n second has sufficed for some of
the birds 10 sink into the earth. But
they are all there. This one behind a
little grass clump, that i'll tiny hollow
made by some pony's foot, another
spreading its wings as it squats at the
base of weed stalk. To the amateur
eve il j. remarkable il without consid-
cradle 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.
The professional knows that they are
all there and the bunch is speedily
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 see it. Their
flight is a peculiar one. Rising To a
height of from twenty to fifty feet,
they take a horizontal course. churning
the air rapidly with the stumpy wings
until momentum is acquired, then sail
ing with outStretched pinions for many
rods. A prairie chicken is never awk-
ward or ridiculous except when in the
air. On taking flight the birds do not,
like quail, go as n flock, but radiate in
every direction, so that he is a good
gunner indeed who makes both barrels
count.
The prairie chicken is non-migratory,
and, like quail, turkey and rabbits,
might be preserved for all time il af-
forded reasonable amount of protec-
tion. Grouse and quail can stand a
comparatively close settlement of the
country, at least one as close as most
parts of the west will admit of, and
with the proper enforcement of rigidly
drafted game laws, as well as manly
forbearance on the part of the sports
men themselves, would preserve the
now unequal ratio between the increase
and slaughter As it is now there is
practically no protection, and from
June To December the markets of west
ern cities show forbidden game. 1t is
not alone grouse, but quail, wild tur-
keys and other varieties suffer. Poach-
ers go with dogs out of season aud bring
in loads of the pretty game, and it finds
its way mysteriously into the stalls of
the cities.
Kansas and Nebraska have laws pro-
hibiting the killing or offering for sale
of birds except from September l to
January /. Yet SO flagrantly has the
law been violated that it has become
necessary for sportsmen's clubs to offer
purses for information regarding viola
tion in order To prevent entire extermi-
nation. 1t will take but short time to
put an end to the sport at the present
rate of decrease.
The famous civilian scout Burgess,
who Is attached to the government post
in Yellowstone park, gives some inter
esting facts regarding the increase of
game since severe measures have been
taken with the poaching trapper. The
elk, he says, are now in such abundance
that they promise to give game To the
hunter in season for many years to
come, while the buffalo are increasing
to such an extent that the park will
soon be well stocked. The same kind of
vigorous measures will be necessary if
the western prairies are not to be
stripped of the smaller as they have
been of the larger game
How the Rules Read.
In South Carolina, where everybody
is born aristocrat, rules of court pre-
scribed that not only the judges but
the attorneys must wear robes in court