THE UPLAND GAME HUNTERS BIBLE.

By Dan Holland '36. New York: Double-day & Co., 1961. 192 pp. $1.95.

Upon receiving the handsome, comprehensive, thoroughly illustrated copy of Dan Holland's new book on bird hunting, the headings looked inviting from the first section on wild turkey through every kind of upland game to final chapters on equipment and shotgun shooting, but I had a hunch about which of all the wingshooting would be most fervently described by our talented alumnus, and was not mistaken or disappointed in the hunch, as will presently be revealed.

However, first things first - which means to report on the book as a whole. My experience in picking it up one evening for purposes of this review seemed unique but I suspect it will be repeated by others. First, I looked for the chapter on my own particular favorite game bird, woodcock. It made fascinating reading. Dan Holland has summed up in a few pages many years of hunting this wily, unpredictable and challenging migratory bird that baffles and delights wingshooters, and certainly all of us around Hanover. Then the splendid section on bobwhite with excellent pictures, a map of its range, and highly readable ancedotes of Dan's outings for quail in the South ... the chapters on pheasants, turkey, chukars, etc.

My unique experience was finding his writing on such unlikely subjects as guinea hen, scaled quail, pigeons, and ptarmigan just as interesting as the birds we know and pursue in New Hampshire.

Carefully avoiding Dan Holland's chapter on ruffed grouse to the last, to check on my hunch, it revealed the devotion of the author and his special gunning chums, Hank Doremus '37, Everett Wood '38, and Corey Ford, to hunting this bird. His passages about our partridge are eloquent and convincing. He says: "At one time or another I have been fortunate enough to hunt practically all the feathered game in America, as well as some outside this continent, and, shell for shell and hour for hour, I consider the ruffed grouse the most difficult and challenging target of them all - and, consequently, the finest game bird of the lot. That is a big statement, but every man is entitled to his opinion. This is mine."

Dan Holland '36 has created his finest work in a distinguished career of freelance photography and writing on hunting and fishing.