THE SOOTY GROUSE. 47 



slope and near the summit of the. Canon City Mountain, in Grant County, 

 ( hvgon, at an altitude of about 6,800 feet. I was returning from escort 

 duty to Canon City, and sent the party with me around by the stage road 

 which wound in zigzag turns up the steep mountain, while with one of my 

 men I took a much shorter, but far steeper, Indian trail which intersected 

 the wagon road again on the summit. 



"Near this intersecting point the trail passed through a beautiful oval- 

 shaped mountain meadow of about an acre in extent, near the summit of 

 which stood a solitary young fir tree. No other trees were growing nearer 

 than 30 yards from this one. The meadow itself was covered with a lux- 

 uriant growth of short, crisp mountain grass and Alpine flowers, altogether 

 as lovely a spot to take a rest as could well be found. Arriving at this 

 point, and knowing that the party would not be along for more than half 

 an hour at least, I dismounted and unsaddled my horse to let him have a 

 roll and a good chance at the sweet mountain grass, of which oppor- 

 tunities he was not slow to take advantage. Throwing the saddle in 

 the shade made by the little fir I laid down to take a rest myself. I had 

 a fine setter dog with me who had been ranging along both sides of the 

 trail and who came up wagging his tail just as I had settled myself com- 

 fortably. Rock, my setter, had approached perhaps within 2 feet of me 

 at a pretty brisk lope, when all of a sudden he came to an abrupt halt, 

 fairly freezing and stiffening in his tracks, and made a dead point alongside 

 of me. I could not understand at first what this meant; even my horse 

 thought it worth the while to stop eating, and with his ears pointed forward 

 was looking in the same direction. Rock, was fairly trembling with excite- 

 ment, but kept to his point. Jumping up quickly I looked to the right and 

 the rear, thinking that perhaps a rattlesnake might be coiled up in the 

 grass, and saw at once the cause of my dog's strange behavior. It was only 

 a poor Sooty Grouse sitting within 3 feet of me on her nest, containing two 

 chicks and seven eggs on the point of hatching. It was as touching a sight 

 as I had ever seen; the poor bird, although scared nearly to death, with 

 every feather pressed close to her body, and fairly within reach of the dog, 

 still persisted in trying to hide her treasures; and her tender brown eyes 

 looked entreatingly on us rude intruders, and if eyes can speak hers cer- 

 tainly pleaded most eloquently for mercy. She let me almost touch her 

 before she fluttered off her nest, feigning lameness, and disappeared in the 

 undergrowth. Counting the eggs and examining one of the chicks, which 

 apparently had only left the shell a few minutes before, I at once vacated 

 the vicinity and took up a position some 50 yards in an opposite direction 

 from that the bird had taken, to watch further proceedings. The grass was 

 so short that it did not hide the bird, which, after waiting, perhaps ten min- 

 utes, came slowly creeping and crouching toward the nest and covered the 

 eggs again. I did not disturb her further, and hope that although her selec- 

 tion of a nesting site so thoroughly exposed was not judicious, she may 



