42 GROUSE FAMILY. 



being met within the White Mountains of New Hampshire and 

 throughout a great portion of the Northern Andes, towards 

 the sources of the Missouri and Oregon. In winter it visits 

 Canada, the interior of Maine, Michigan, sometimes the State 

 of New York ; and it even breeds round Halifax in Nova 

 Scotia, as well as in the State of Maine. In Canada it is 

 known by the name of the Wood Partridge ; by others it 

 is called the Cedar, or Spruce, Partridge. Sometimes the birds 

 are sent in a frozen state from Nova Scotia and New Bruns- 

 wick to Boston. 



The favorite resort of this species is in pine and spruce 

 woods and cedar swamps, which they frequent in the winter 

 for the purpose of feeding on the buds, oily seeds, and ever- 

 green foliage, to which they also add juniper-berries. Their 

 flesh, though palatable at all times, is considered best in sum- 

 mer, when they feed much on berries, as the buds of the res- 

 inous evergreens communicate an unpleasant flavor to the 

 game. As usual, they nest on the ground with little art, in the 

 slight shelter of fallen leaves and bushes, and are said by 

 Audubon to lay 8 to 14 eggs of a deep fawn color, irregularly 

 splashed with different tints of brown. They are readily ap- 

 proached, and sometimes are said to be so unsuspicious as, 

 like the Ptarmigan, to allow of being knocked down with a 

 stick ; and round Hudson Bay are commonly caught by the 

 aborigines in a simple noose fastened to a stake. When much 

 disturbed, however, they betake themselves to trees, where 

 they are readily approached and shot down. 



In the month of May, where they breed, in the State of 

 Maine, the male struts before his mate, and beating his wings 

 briskly against his body, produces a drumming noise, clearer 

 than that of the Ruffed Grouse, which can be heard to a con- 

 siderable distance. The males leave their mates as soon as 

 incubation has commenced, and do not join them again until 

 late in autumn. 



The " Spruce Partridge," as the bird is called by the gunners 

 " down East."' is a fairly common resident of the timber districts 

 in northern New England and the Provinces ; it occurs also in the 



