COURTSHIPS OF LABRADOR BIRDS 



ducing at such short range an almost painful 

 sensation: the wings were immediately re- 

 covered, and another stroke, a trifle quicker 

 than the first, was succeeded by another still 

 quicker, until the wings vibrated too fast to be 

 followed by the eye, producing the well-known 

 terminal roll of muffled thunder." 



Although this performance is very different 

 from the fluttering flight of the singing bird, yet 

 there are two other Labrador birds that illus- 

 trate very well, it seems to me, the stages in its 

 evolution. One of these is the willow ptarmi- 

 gan, which, we were told came to the southern 

 coast in great numbers every five or six winters. 

 In this season the bird is snow-white with the 

 exception of a black tail, but in summer it is 

 brown and matches so well its surroundings that 

 it is almost impossible to see it on the ground. 

 In the love season it does not drum like its 

 cousin the ruffed grouse, neither does it sing, in 

 fact it tries to do both, but, as is often the case 

 under these circumstances, it falls between two 

 stools and does neither well. Mr. L. M. Turner 

 thus describes the nuptial performance of the 

 willow grouse, as he observed it in Labrador : 

 " In the spring these birds repair, as the snow 



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