RUFFED GROUSE. 35 
berries of the cranberry-tree even better than they 
do music, and we have been much amused watch- 
ing their attempts to get the berries from a bush 
by the garden. Sometimes they stand in the snow 
underneath and jump for them ; but one day when 
the bush was covered with ice one adventurous 
bird flew up on a branch and nearly turned a 
somersault in trying to lean over and pick off the 
berries and at the same time keep hold of the 
slippery perch. 
But our chief pleasure is in watching the par- 
tridges from the bay window of the dining-room. 
The young men are as proud as turkey -cocks 
of the handsome black ruffs for which they were 
dubbed “ ruffed grouse,” and when they strut be- 
fore the ladies, raising their crests, erecting their 
spread tails, and puffing out the ruffs over their 
shoulders they remind one forcibly of the lordly 
cock. In matter of fact they do belong to the 
same family, —that of the gallinaceous birds, — 
and many of their mannerisms betray the relation- 
ship. ‘Their way of scratching in the snow, rest- 
ing their weight on one foot and scratching with 
the other, is like that of the common hen, and 
their drumming is the finished performance that 
is caricatured by Chanticleer. Drumming with 
the partridge is a joy. He beats the air with his 
wings till it must needs sing for him, and the 
musie¢ is full of refreshing pictures of green mossy 
logs, arching ferns, and the cool shade of the 
woods, 
