586 



TIJE CAXADl \.\ RlI'Fia) CROL'SE. 



ck-nclied fists. Otliers affirmed tlial the ictus was made I)y the contact of 

 wings as they met o\-er tlie hack. Rendire says: "It is generally conceded 

 now bv most naturalists, including such well-known ornithologists as Brewster, 

 Merriam and Henshaw, that the sound is [produced by the outsjiread wings 

 lit the l)ird being suddenly brought downward against the air, without striking 

 anx'thing." 



Another noisv surprise is in store for the person who comes upon a 

 mother Partridge with a brood of tender chicks. With a great outcry the 

 mother birtl charges up in front of the intruder, or dashes into his face: then 



stands before him with 

 flashing e_\'es and ruffled 

 feathers 1 o o k i n g fierce 

 enough to eat him up. 

 Thus she holds the enemy 

 at bay for one bewild.ering 

 moment. — a precious mo- 

 ment, in which her tiny 

 darlings ai'e linding shelter. 

 Then she collapses like a 

 struck tent and \-anishes in 

 a trice. A diligent search 

 may discover a chick under 

 a fallen leaf, or between 

 two pieces of bark, but no 

 li\ing man can find an en- 

 tire brood in tiiis way. 



The Canadian Kufifed 

 Grouse, or "Gray-tail," is 

 of northern stock, well dis- 

 tributed thru the timbered 

 foothills and mountain val- 

 leys of eastern Washing- 

 ton. It intergrades with 

 the following form thruout the higher valleys of the western slopes of the 

 Cascades, and occasionally \'entures to the verv coast, especiallv northerly. 

 Intermedi.ite ]ilumages are not rare, but specimens from an\' localitv of the 

 borderland are usually definitely referable to one form or the other. Thus 

 of eleven specimens taken b\- ]\Ir. Brown near Mt. Baker five were "grays," 

 that is, Canadians, and fi\e "reds," or Oregons, with one intermediate. 

 These differences of ])lumage are so marked that it is easv to name the liirds 

 as thev rise. 



Takoi }icar Sf^okaur. Photo by F. S. Merrill. 



OS THE ALEKT. 



CANADIAN RL'FFED GROUSE (bACKGKOUND PAINTED OUT) . 



