PINNATED GROUSE 233 
the arrival of the flocks in northern Iowa, but an 
early spring with fair weather finds them abundant 
in the southern tiers of counties in Minnesota, 
and many flocks pass still farther north. The 
most remarkable feature of this movement is found 
in the sex of the migrants. It is the females that 
migrate, leaving the males to brave the winter’s cold. 
Mr. Miller, of Heron Lake, Minn., fairly states 
the case when he says: ‘The females in this latitude 
migrate south in the fall and come back in the spring, 
about one or two days after the first ducks; and they 
keep coming in flocks of from ten to thirty for about 
three days, all flying north. The grouse that stayed 
all winter are males.’ ” 
Audubon noticed and spoke of these movements 
nearly a hundred years ago, for in his account of this 
species he says: 
“During the first years of my residence at Hender- 
son (Kry.), in severe winters, the number of grouse of 
this species was greatly augmented by large flocks of 
them that evidently came from Indiana, Illinois and 
even from the western side of the Mississippi. They 
retired at the approach of spring.” 
When John James Audubon first lived in Kentucky, 
the “Barrens”—by which is meant open stretches of 
land without timber—swarmed with these birds, and 
they were looked on more or less as a pest. They were 
credited with committing much mischief among the 
fruit trees of the orchards in winter, and in the spring 
they fed on the grain in the new-sown fields. They 
