314 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF 



instantly disappear at the note, " Quit, quit," the first sound they may have heard in 

 their young hves. As the intruder comes near the family, see how the mother feigns 

 lameness and flutters along on the ground just beyond reach of the person's hand, 

 uttering a plaintive cry until she thinks she has decoyed him to a distance that means 

 safety for her young. Now she bursts through the trees in full flight and in one 

 second is forty rods from her pursuer, leaving him confused and chagrined and unable 

 to find the spot where the precious young lie in concealment or safe protection by 

 their earth- like coloration. And when the mother utters that low call that may be 

 translated "All's well," see how they spring up from places where they had no cover, 

 and you wonder how it was that you could not have seen them in their hiding. 



The soft little bills cannot now break heavy coverings of seeds, neither can the 

 tender little gizzards comminute the rough weed seeds that might become the food 

 of the parents ; so insects are caught and fed to them, and they are at once taught 

 to catch insects for themselves. The male, who has been away on voluntary absence 

 during the summer, returns and struts and chuckles as if to say, " See what Ttv 

 have done with our little hatch-it." He is sufficiently prosaic, however, to " take 

 a hand" (or rather put in his bill) in family afTairs and aid in the capture of bugs, 

 beetles, flies, moths, grubs, worms, etc., as well as in hunting berries and other soft 

 fruits for the sustenance of the progeny. It is at this time that the young are 

 especially liable to be injured by exposure to cold and wet weather, and by numerous 

 pests and enemies. (See "Enemies.") They may be found quite approachable at 

 the beginning of the shooting season, and when not too closely hunted may remain 

 together as one covey until the following spring; but after being much hunted, they 

 become quite alert and very wild and scattered. They fly into trees and remain so 

 quietly perched against the trunk that even the eye of an expert fails to detect their 

 presence. When the snow is on the ground they are especially likely to alight in a 

 tree, and at such times they are often hunted with a barking cur. Their attention is 

 so completely given to the dog that the hunter is often able to shoot several as they 

 sit in the tree. It is believed by many persons that all the birds in the tree may be 

 shot by commencing with the lower one and dropping them, one at a time, but this 

 is denied by good authority. Although during the summer they eat many insects, 

 berries, grapes, beechnuts, seeds, and other fruits, they also eat many leaves and buds, 

 especially the seeds and pulp of skunk cabbage and the leaves of Bishop's cap (Tiarclla). 

 They are very fond of buckwheat at all seasons. In the winter, when snow is on the 

 ground, their principal food is buds of various trees and shrubs, such as birch, poplar, 

 and maple trees and cedar berries, witch-hazel flowers, the leaves and berries of the 

 wintergreen, squaw berries, and the leaves of the peppermint. " Kalmia leaves, which 

 are sometimes eaten by them in winter, are said, on good authority, to make the flesh 



