THE TRYSTING-SPOT. 39 



tains, its very near relative, Bonasa umbellus 

 (Steph.), again ranges through Canada indeed, 

 I may fairly say, over the greater part of America. 

 But what follows applies to Baird's new species, 

 found only west of the Rocky Mountains. 



The habits of this grouse are singularly er- 

 ratic, and his food is of the most varied cha- 

 racter. In the spring-time his favourite haunt 

 is by the side of some stagnant pool, or in the 

 brush round a marsh where the crab-apple 

 (Pyrus rivularis} and the black-birch and alder 

 grow, where fallen timber lies crumbling and 

 rotting away; where everything mouldy, dark, 

 damp, and oozy seems to hold high festival; 

 where flabby fungoid growths spring like huge 

 ears from moist-decaying wood, and gigantic 

 agarics sprout up in a night like mammoth fairy 

 tables; here, too, the skunk cabbage, with its 

 great green succulent leaves, grows in rank luxu- 

 riance, covering up the surface of the mud like a 

 huge mat. 



In such spots as these, in the month of April, 

 the wooing begins. They regularly pair, and 

 having once exchanged the nuptial promise, are, 

 I think, most constant to each other during the 

 nest-building and hatching time. During the 

 time of pairing, and at intervals after the 



