248 OUT WITH THE BIRDS 



It invariablj^ gives the shooter a feeling of 

 better fellowship toward these grouse, which in 

 all places where adequate protection is not given 

 them, must shortly face exermination. The ac- 

 companying photographs were taken within a 

 few feet of a front door in a town in western 

 Manitoba. Every day in mid-winter the birds 

 come into town to be fed thus. The great dan- 

 ger attending these habits arises from their pro- 

 pensity for sailing full tilt into the telegraph 

 wires. A number of them are killed thus each 

 winter, and a walk along the railroad track in 

 the spring, out a little distance from town, al- 

 ways reveals half a dozen tragedies from this 

 source. 



The daily itinerary of this flock in mid-winter 

 is about as follows : With the first peep of dawn 

 they leave their snow beds and mount to the tops 

 of the willows and poplars, close at hand. At 

 sunrise or a little before it, they whizz off into 

 town and scatter around the various feeding- 

 grounds mentioned above. About ten o'clock they 

 usually take a run out along the railway track, 

 evidently to get a supply of gravel; then they 

 return to spend the warm part of the day in the 

 scrubby sand-hills. Here they sit about in the 



