510 THE BIRDS OF MANITOBA THOMPSON. 



Grouse had alighted, and then without running more than a few steps 

 had dived into the drift. As I came nearer the bir-ls sprang up 

 through the powdery snow a few feet in advance of their entering 

 places and I secured one of them. It was of the typical umhelloides 

 form, with gray tail and plumage; its crop was filled with catkins 

 (hazel?), equisetum tops, rose-hips, and various kinds of browse; 

 probably birch preponderated. 



It seems to be the normal habit of this bird to roost in a snow drift 

 during the coldest weather. The wonderful non-conductivity of the 

 snow is well known, but may be forcibly illustrated by the fact that 

 although the thermometer registers 35° below zero, the 10 inches of 

 snow which fell before the severe frost came, has effectually kept the 

 wet earth in the woods from freezing, although the temperature has 

 been at or below zero for over a week. In view of these facts it is easy 

 to understand that the grouse in the snow drift are quite comfortable 

 during the coldest nights. In general the bird will be found to run 

 about before burrowing into the drift; each makes its own bed, usually 

 10 or 20 feet from its neighbor ; they usually go down a foot or so and 

 along 2 feet; they j)ass the whole night in one bed if undisturbed, as 

 the large amount of dung left behind would indicate. They do not 

 come out at the ingress, but burst through the roof of their cot at one 

 side ; they do not usually go straight ahead and out, because their 

 breath during the whole night has been freezing into an icy wall just 

 before their nostrils. 



On December 7, in the spruce bush, shot two Kuftied Grouse this after- 

 noon, about sunset. They were running about on a snowdrift, jncking 

 the buds off the projecting twigs of a shrub that I take to be the dwarf 

 birch. One of them was in splendid bronze plumage, i e , with the 

 ruffs and tail band of a rich copper color, and the other dark marking, 

 glossed with the same. To-day the thermometer stood at 20° below 

 zero. 



On May 24, 1883, saw a partridge on his drum-log in the eastern woods. 

 The log looked as though it had been used for several seasons, as it was 

 much worn and a great quantity of dung was lying on each side of it. 



On August 21, while crossing a part of the spruce bush, I heard the 

 warning chuckle of a partridge to her brood. I pressed quickly forward 

 and distinctly saw her sitting on a stump, 30 yards away. Fresh meat 

 was desirable, and the young were well grown ; so, hastily raising the 

 gun, I fired, without the slightest effect on the gray still form on the 

 stump, but at the shot the young ones rose with a whirr and scattered 

 to the left. Then again I fired in haste at the form on the stump, this 

 time with ball, and the only effect was to satisfy myself that I had been 

 blazing away at an old knot. As I reloaded I walked towards this 

 deceptive piece of wood, and it continued as rigid as any other stump 

 until I was within 15 yards, when up it sprang and flew off in the woods 

 in the opposite direction to that taken by the flock. 



