The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-08-21
Chicken Shooting In Idaho
Is Great Sport.
BIRDS ARE ABUNDANT.
DATES FIXED FOR THE IDAHO
INTER MOUNTAIN FAIR.
Row Between Montana's Governor
and the State Land Commission
ers-Colorado Hunter Brings In
Twenty Live Rattlers-San Fran
cisco's News.

Pocatello, Ida, Aug. 1.-THE
Chicken" shooting season opened in
Idaho Aug. 1, and since that time the
crack of the shot gun has been heard
on the high sage brush plains and in
the narrow valleys from one end of the
state to the other, and from every Sec
ton come reports of lots of birds and
rare sport. Empty shells cover valley,
plain and foot hills, and in oven or
pot or on spit the young grouse, fat
and tender, are broiling or browning,
and sending forth their appetizing
odors.
Idaho offers no sport that has more
attractions for the genuine sportsman
than Chicken" shooting, and from all
reports the delicious young sage hens
are more plentiful this year than ever
before The game laws have never
been So we'll observed as this year.
While the whites have usually paid due
regard to the laws, the Indians have
heretofore roamed the state at will and
slaughtered thousands of birds and
frightening the tinid brooding hens
from their nests. This year the Indians
have very generally been kept on their
reservations. and the result is that the
young sage hens were Matched out by
the thousands and that there are birds
for every body
In the upland plains, where the sage
brush is thickest, and the meadows,
where the camas grows, the sage hens
abound. In the little valleys and along
the willow fringed streams are found
the dainty willow grouse. Higher up
in the edge of the timber, live the most
delicious and at the same time the
most timid blue grouse. For the man
who loves a day with dog and gun
this country is perfect paradise.
Every stream is filed with gamey trout
and the hunter can vary sport and
menu as well.
Any one who knows how to shoot a
gun can get lots of sport, as well as a
fair amount of birds out of a days
chicken shooting, but it takes a quick
eye and steady hand to pick out the
young birds when covey is flushed.
The novice is apt to load himself down
with old cock grouse-big birds and
beautifully marked in black and white,
like the darling bird of the Japanese
artists, but tough-ye gods. how tough.
The pot has never yet been made that
would last long enough to boil them
tender.
It is always best to hunt sage hens
in couples, and with a good dog. The
birds are usually flushed in small COW
eys of IL or Is birds, and it is not I'M
usual for the nearer man to get in both
barrels, and still leave a good shot for
his partner, if the birds fly right. It is
not at all unusual for two average
marksmen to bring down so or 60 birds
as the result of days shooting.
Everywhere these toothsome birds
are abundant. but probably. the most
favored localities are the canas mea-
dows, that about south and east of the
Yellowstone National park and the
great central mesa of the Wood River
country. but good sport is not re-
stricted to any of these localities.
Wherever sage brush grows, sage hens
abound. No one in Idaho has to go
far to find their haunts. and almost
every citizen of the state is keen
sportsman. It is the great Sunday
amusement, and every Saturday night
sees an exodus of men in leggins and
shooting coats and with guns and dogs
from every little town in the state
Denver Republican