SPRUCE PARTRIDGE ; CANADA GROUSE, 131 



they breed in that neighborhood about the middle of May, 

 a full month sooner than they do in Labrador. In their 

 love season the males are said to exhibit many of the sin- 

 gular manners also noticeabe in the other members of this 

 family. They strut before the female on the ground, some- 

 thing in the manner of the common domestic turkey-cock, 

 occasionally rising in a spiral manner above her in the air; 

 at the same time, both when on the ground and in the air, 

 they beat their wings violentl}' against their body, thereby 

 producing a peculiar drumming sound, which is said to be 

 much clearer than the well-known drumming of the Huffed 

 Grouse. These sounds can be heai'd at a considerable dis- 

 tance from the place where they are made. 



The female constructs a nest of a bed of dry twigs, 

 leaves, and mosses, which is usually carefully concealed, on 

 the ground and under low horizontal branches of fir-trees. 

 The number of eggs is said to vary from eight to eighteen 

 in number. It is imagined by the common people that 

 where more than ten eggs are found in the same nest they 

 are the ]jroduct of two females, who aid each other in 

 their charge. The eggs are described by Audubon as of a 

 deep fawn-color, irregularly splashed with different tints of 

 brown. They have but a single brood in a season, and the 

 young follow the mother as soon as they leave the shell. 

 As soon as incubation commences, the males desert the 

 females and keep in small flocks by themselves, removing to 

 different woods, where they usually become much more shy 

 and wary than at any other season of the year. In their 

 movements on the ground these birds are said to resemble 

 our common Quail, rather than the Ruffed Grouse. They 

 do not jerk their tails in the manner of the latter bird, as 

 they walk, nor are they known to burrow in the snow ; 

 but when they are pursued they invariably take refuge in 

 trees, from which they cannot be readily made to fly. 

 When di'iven from one place of refuge to another, they 

 accompany their flight with a few clucks, and those sounds 

 they repeat when they alight. When a flock thus alights, 

 it may all be readily secured by a little precaution and 



