104 Birds of Lakeside and Prairie 



the bird has put it well beyond danger. This is the ruffed 

 grouse of the time of the ripened shellbark and of the blood- 

 red sumac. Then the bird's every effort is for self-preserva- 

 tion. In the earlier year, almost before the pulsing fullness of 

 the spring has passed, the bird that flees in the fall at the 

 approach of the despoiler stays to dispute his right to intrude, 

 and if necessary to give him battle. Others have told the 

 story of the attack that the female grouse will at times make 

 upon the man who stumbles upon her brood in the heart of 

 the woods. It has fallen to the lot of but few to witness the 

 exhibition that this wild bird gives of mother-love and cour- 

 age. It was my fortune once to have an experience with a 

 mother grouse who was caring for a brood of ten or twelve 

 downy young in the depths of a ravine on the government 

 reservation at Fort Sheridan. There are not many ruffed 

 grouse left in the country along the lake. The birds have 

 been shot by market hunters and others until the hearing of 

 a log drumming in the spring is an ornithological epoch. I 

 had been at target practice on the Fort Sheridan rifle range, 

 and was on my way from the firing point to relieve a man 

 behind the butts. To reach the objective point I was forced 

 to go through dense underbrush to the bottom of a deep ravine. 

 I was just about to jump the little brook which flows at the 

 base of the shelving ravine bank when I heard a clucking and 

 hissing noise. Before time was given to me to realize what 

 living thing was present, there was a rushing sound, followed 

 by the impact of a heavy body against my knee. It was a 

 case for a minute of both mental and physical stagger. Recov- 

 ering enough to look down, I saw two feet in front of me a hen 

 grouse bridling, and with her feathers rufHed up until she 

 looked as big as a bufT-cochin. At the same time I became 



