312 RURAL BIRD LIFE. 



As soon as the young are hatched they are able to quit 

 the nest, which they do, and follow their anxious parent, 

 who finds food for them, and shelters them under her 

 wings at nightfall. Should you come unexpectedly upon 

 a brood of young Grouse and their parents, the old birds 

 will sometimes display alluring motions until their young 

 have sought safety, when they separate, and fly quickly 

 off, only to return and collect their scattered brood when 

 the danger has passed. 



Many persons will scarcely allow a protective instinct 

 to birds of such tender age. But let them come suddenly 

 upon a tender brood, and notice how the little creatures, 

 hatched it may be but a few hours, spread themselves 

 in all directions, and, while their attention is arrested by 

 the parent birds, lie close to the ground and remain 

 motionless until they leave them again to their parents* 

 care, those persons I say must at once abandon these 

 views in favour of a protective power. True, the little 

 creatures are unconscious of the good they are efl"ecting ; 

 but still they are born wicn that in their nature which 

 causes them so to act by resistless impulse, and when 

 they reach maturity these motions cease their mysteri- 

 ous power, and motions befitting their more matured 

 lives take their place. Such is Instinct in one of its 

 many strange and unreadable forms ; and yet when we 

 study its many and varied forms, effectual though they 

 are in their proper sphere, and compare them with that 

 power common to man alone, we cannot fail to notice 

 the infinite void between them. 



The young Grouse, like game birds in general, gain 

 the use of their wings but slowly. July arrives ere they 

 are at all strong on the wing : sometimes this event is 

 much later, as the sportsman of the twelfth, the memor- 

 able twelfth of August, knows full well. The Grouse is 



