Biography 43 



rivalries became increasingly belligerent. In spite of the sometimes 

 frantic orders from the mother, they would not heed her warning of 

 impending dangers. So it was natural that the probability of addi- 

 tional mortality in the family would rise at this time. 



One day a Cooper's hawk sat waiting on its perch in a dead chest- 

 nut tree as two chicks raced recklessly up the near-by draw. In a 

 flash the hawk plummeted earthward as they approached and with 

 a quick sideward surge grasped the second of the chicks. Thus the 

 family was reduced to four youngsters— only thirty-six per cent of 

 the number in the little nest at the base of the birch tree two months 

 before. 



The Family Grows Up with a Change of Clothes. The youngsters 

 soon learned the dangers of independence and became more alert 

 to observe dangers for themselves. Mother was more cautious than 

 ever now because she was losing feathers and flight was not as pow- 

 erful or accurate as usual. In the course of a few weeks she com- 

 pleted her moult and had a full new set of feathers. No longer were 

 her tail and wing feathers ragged at the tips; every one was as fresh 

 as a new leaf in the spring. Before she was through with her moult, 

 the chicks began losing their juvenile plumage. By mid-September 

 their first adult plumage was almost complete and they could hardly 

 be distinguished from the mother. Two of them had very rufous tails, 

 one was mottled rufous and gray like the mother, the fourth proved 

 to be a gray-phase bird. The family allegiance became very loose, 

 and the mother no longer concerned herself with her children's 

 safety. It was every one for himself now, and they were found by 

 themselves as often as they were together. 



Crazy Flight and the Fall Shuffle. As the calendar turned to Octo- 

 ber, there was a new tang in the air. Many new fruits were ripen- 

 ing so that the grouse were to be found along woodland edges, in 

 brush lots and even out along hedge-rows where the hawthorns, 

 dogwoods, viburnums and other preferred fall foods were to be 

 found. The youngsters attained their sexual maturity with an ac- 

 companying resurgence of quarreling, more vicious than ever be- 

 fore. Now when one of the brood was chased by another the victim 

 was not likely to return. There was a definite antagonism on the 

 part of most of the birds for all other giouse. It was not exactly an 

 exhibition of territorial behavior as in the spring, but operated simi- 



