204 THE BIRDS OF MAINE 



After the first egg has hatched all the others have usually 

 hatched within forty-eight hours. The downy young are 

 soon able to run about and leave the nest very soon after all 

 have hatched. The old bird broods them with " quits " and 

 " chirrs " in much the same manner as a domestic hen. When 

 not much larger than a Robin the young are able to fly. 



The young as well as the adults have a varied diet. 

 Beetles, worms, bunchberries, blueberries, blackberries, rasp- 

 berries, checkerberries, partridge berries, thorn plums, choke- 

 cherries, oxalis leaves, clover leaves, grass blades, touch-me-not 

 leaves and seed, beechnuts, and a far greater variety of similar 

 material are eaten in summer and fall. In the winter they 

 " bud " seeming to prefer the yellow and white birches, and the 

 poplar, but also eating spruce, fir, pine, maple and in fact 

 many other buds. 



In the winter the comb like fringes on their toes are well 

 developed, making their tracks have a peculiar appearance 

 when clearly impressed in moist snow. These combs serve in 

 the same manner as snowshoes. At this season the birds bur- 

 row more or less into the dry snow to seek shelter, and some- 

 times if a storm and a thaw sets in while they are under the 

 snow, followed by a sharp freeze, the crust so formed prevents 

 the birds from escaping and they perish. That the Partridge 

 learns by experience seems very evident. 



In my boyhood days when there were more birds and fewer 

 hunters it was a very common experience for me to start up a 

 flock of ten or a dozen birds, old with young, and all would fly 

 up into convenient trees near at hand. Under such conditions 

 during the hunting season I could often shoot several before 

 they took alarm. Now it is rare to scare up more than one 

 or at most two or three Partridge in a bunch, and these usually 

 go up without any preliminary warnings or quits, generally 

 on the farther side of some thick trees, and fly straight away 

 without any chance to see them clearly. They have learned 

 by experience how to act. 



