. Rod and gun . trip now, I have done well. What arethe causes of this great decrease in theirnumbers ? The following are the causesI have observed: First, their retreats have been clearedaway and they are hemmed into smallbounds, except in the far north, and acovey can be annihilated in a day or sowith the aid of a good dog in one ofthese small groves. should be from the first of October tothe fifteenth of November. The reason isobvious to those who know the habits ofthese birds. The young birds are whatwe would call foolish in September,and are easily bagged, and every observerknows that the
. Rod and gun . trip now, I have done well. What arethe causes of this great decrease in theirnumbers ? The following are the causesI have observed: First, their retreats have been clearedaway and they are hemmed into smallbounds, except in the far north, and acovey can be annihilated in a day or sowith the aid of a good dog in one ofthese small groves. should be from the first of October tothe fifteenth of November. The reason isobvious to those who know the habits ofthese birds. The young birds are whatwe would call foolish in September,and are easily bagged, and every observerknows that they live on the buds of thetrees after the snow has come. They canbe seen for a couple of miles budding, inthe evening in the naked tree tops, andany person can get another tree betweenthem and himself, and then get up to aclose range, and by shooting the lowestbird every one may be bagged in thewhole covey — a veritable slaughter —and I have done this more than once somevears asfo, and 1 know w-here the last. Partridge on her Nest at Root of Oak. Scond, as most of the farm work is donequickly by machinery, the farmers sonshave more time to hunt, and if a fewpartridge are known to be in a piece ofbush, a couple of them take a good birddog and clean them out. The boys andyoung men from our towns and villagesare doing the same thing. Third, it is a well known fact thatskunks are increasing rapidly, and theydestroy large numbers of the eggs and thechicks. Fourth, the open season is too long(excepting last season). The open season bird has been taken out a large stretchof forest in this way. Fifth, the cold, severe winters of 1903and 1904, wjth a heavy crust on the snow,caused many to die. Sixth, the last two cold, wet springskilled many of the chicks. I have mentioned six causes which havedisturbed the balance of Nature as re-gards the vanishing of our rufted grouse,and if we add another, namely, disease,which is said to have made great ravagesamong them, can we wonder that they
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectf, booksubjecthunting
