THE BIRDS OF THE ADIRONDACKS. 43 



Our most valuable game bird is the ruffed grouse or partridge. 

 He stays with us all the time. He is a strong, swift flier, and taxes 

 the nerve and skill of the sportsman to a high degree, and to bring 

 down a partridge under full wing in the evergreens in November 

 sends a thrill of delight through one's veins. 



The partridge is a gallinaceous bird, and the young leave the 

 nest as soon as hatched, running around with the mother like 

 chickens. Upon the approach of danger the young hide themselves 

 under the leaves in an incredibly short time, and the mother flut- 

 ters off with an apparently broken wing, keeping just out of reach 

 to lure you away from the hiding place of her young. This ruse 

 is employed by many birds, but in none, so far as I know, to as 

 large an extent as the partridge. Naturally a very timid bird, the 

 partridge will put up quite a bluff for a fight in defense of her 

 young, and on two occasions I knew a partridge to show fight with- 

 out any young. Experience has satisfied me that a partridge knows 

 enough to try and get a tree between himself and the huntsman, 

 and to keep it there until he is out of range. 



Partridges are less numerous around my home than they were 

 twenty years ago, and their habits have undergone a very decided 

 change. Then they usually took to a tree when flushed; now they 

 seldom light on a tree, and take much longer flights. When hunt- 

 ing in Canada last fall I found that the partridges were very tame, 

 and simply ran away from me, or if pressed flew into trees near 

 by and waited for their heads to be taken off with rifle balls. 



I notice considerable difference in the shade coloring of the 

 partridge, some being much darker than others, but all have the 

 same markings. The partridge is omnivorous, and, like man and 

 the pig, he eats almost everything. In the winter he lives upon 

 the buds of trees, and many a bird has lost his life while filling his 

 crop from this source, as he is then an easy mark for the hunter, 

 and I have seen the marks of his bill on the carcasses of animals. 

 He is fond of blackberries, and sportsmen often visit blackberry 

 patches when looking for him in the early fall, but I have been 

 surprised to find that when feeding in a blackberry patch he appar- 

 ently shows no preference for the ripe berries, filling his crop with 

 all kinds. A fact about the partridge which I find is not generally 

 known is, while in summer its toes are plain, like the toes of a 

 chicken, in the winter they are bordered with a stiff hairy fringe 

 that gives it support on the snow, having the same effect as the 

 meshes of our snowshoes. This is a fact of considerable interest, 

 for it seems to have a bearing upon the theory that there is a 

 tendency in animals to develop conditions favorable to their en- 

 vironment. . Under this theory one might hope to find a develop- 



