— Gunning for Ruffed Grouse in October Is Real Sport —

Nora Knows Her Thunder-wings

- Henry Milliken

Those of us who annually hike over the hills, through the briars and across the little pastures in search of the wary ruffed grouse know that October is the most enjoyable month in the entire year for real sport with gun and dog. Maine’s most famous upland game bird, the fan-tailed, quick-starting, fast-flying, tree-dodging partridge is the magnet which draws us back to the dusty country lanes year after year. We call the ruffed grouse many names other than partridge,” including biddy” and thunder-wings.”

Occasionally, when we blast away and miss em, we emphatically call them words which the husky youngsters in the seventh grade at school know but seldom use where their mothers and fathers will hear them. I’ll admit that as a general tule I’m a patient, slow-moving and slow-talking individual, but when exasperated at being bamboozled by an extra-cunning partridge, I swear in at least three languages and the springer spaniel looks around to determine the cause of my indignation.

There’s nothing quite so beneficial for a good dog as a workout in the country during October when the Red Gods call, and the air is hazy. It is at this season of the year that the dog you’ve owned for a few years is anxious to be doing something more interesting than walking in and out of a little doghouse in your backyard. There’s bird scent in the crisp air and the old dog knows that his master should get out into the back pastures once again before settling down for the winter’s work ahead at office or shop. This is the season when a dog dreams of quiet stretches of wooded areas where partridges are thundering off to seek more quiet retreats while his master’s gun booms forth occasionally at the fast-flyers of the back pastures.