Bob Whites, Grouse, etc. 



across, according to Mr. Ernest Seton Thompson), when, without 

 warning, some male has a fresh seizure that soon starts another 

 saturnalia. "The whole performance reminds one so strongly 

 of a ' Cree dance,' " says Mr. Thompson, "as to suggest the 

 possibility of its being the prototype of the Indian exercise. . . . 

 The dancing is indulged in at any time of the morning or even- 

 ing in May, but it is usually at its height before sunrise. Its 

 erotic character can hardly be questioned, but I cannot fix its 

 place or value in the nuptial ceremonies. The fact that I have 

 several times noticed the birds join for a brief ' set to ' in the late 

 fall merely emphasizes its parallelism to the drumming and strut- 

 ting of the ruffed grouse as well as the singing of small birds." 



After pairing, the male, in the usual selfish fashion of his 

 tribe, allows his mate to seek some place of concealment, scratch 

 out an excavation screened by grasses, and attend to all nurs- 

 ery duties, while he joins a club of loafers that most scientists 

 consider flagrant polygamists too. From ten to sixteen eggs, 

 very small for so large a bird, and of a brown or buff shade with 

 a few dark spots, hatch, after about twenty-one days of close 

 sitting, into golden yellow, speckled chicks, admirably clothed, to 

 escape detection from prowling hawks, as they squat in the grass. 

 This species, too, is a conspicuous sufferer from the mowing 

 machine and prairie fire. If farmers would only burn all their 

 fields in autumn instead of in May and June, when birds are nest- 

 ing, thousands of grouse might be spared annually. 



All young grouse feed largely on insects, especially grass- 

 hoppers, at first, but sharp-tails become almost dependent at any 

 time on the hips of the wild rose, the stony seeds that likewise 

 do the work of gravel being a staple every month in the year ; 

 willow and birch browse, various seeds, cereals, and berries en- 

 larging a long menu. Such dainty fare makes delicate, luscious 

 flesh, so tender, indeed, that young birds falling at the aim of the 

 sportsman's gun have been burst asunder when they reached 

 the ground, and their feathers loosened. With increased age the 

 flesh grows dark and less palatable. These grouse, hunted in 

 the same fashion that the pinnated grouse is, generally lie well to 

 a dog. A single bird rising with a cackling cry when flushed 

 at a point, flies swiftly straight away, now beating the wings, 

 now sailing with them stiffly set and decurved, still cackling as 

 it goes. Later in the year, when coveys unite to form a dense 



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