RUFFED GROUSE 



33 



necks in the shambles. The beauty and life of 

 the poor birds being gone, they seem without in- 

 terest. But walk through a Partridge woods and 

 the presence of 

 the living birds 

 in the shadowy 

 forest lends it 

 charm and new 

 delight. You 

 are startled by 

 a loud whirr, 

 and a covey of 

 birds, before 

 invisible, rises 

 from almost un- 

 der your feet, 

 whirling away 

 through the 



bushes so fast your eye can scarcely follow their 

 flight. As they disappear you berate your dull- 

 ness, for they look so large it seems inexcusable 

 that you have not discovered them. They are 

 almost the size of the domestic fowls, to which 

 they are related ; but though they walk about on 

 the ground like hens, their soft wood-colors tone 

 in with the colors of the sunlit brown leaves, and 

 neutralize the light so perfectly that it is a diffi- 

 cult matter to see them. They are protectively 

 colored, we have been accustomed to say, meaning 

 that they ap])roach the colors of their surround- 



FiG. 13. 



Ruffed Grouse. 



