THE OREGON RUFFED GROUSE. 
on 
A 
At the foot of a maple in some swampy thicket, or close beside a 
tallen log, the female scrapes a slight depression in the earth, lining it 
roughly with dead leaves and a few small twigs. In this she places eight 
or ten eggs, buff or faintly ruddy, sparingly spotted with pale brownish 
or buffy red. As she leaves the nest, she does so a-wing, causing the 
surrounding leaves to flutter carelessly over her eggs. If the eggs are 
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Taken near Tacoma Photo by the Author 
NEST AND EGGS OF OREGON RUFFED GROUSE 
molested, she will either desert outright or else break up the polluted 
clutch. If, however, she only suspects that her secret may be known, she 
is at great pains to cover up her treasures with leaves and trash each time 
she quits them. 
In caring for the brood the mother bird exhibits the utmost solicitude, 
