Grouse. 7i 



in certain places and hold dancing rings, posturing and 

 strutting about as they face and pass each other. 



The nest is generally placed in a tuft of grass or under a 

 sage-brush in the open, but occasionally in the brush wood 

 near a stream. The chicks are pretty little balls of mot- 

 tled brown and yellow down. The mother takes great 

 care of them, leading them generally into some patch of 

 brushwood, but often keeping them out in the deep grass. 

 Frequently when out among the cattle I have ridden my 

 horse almost over a hen with a brood of chicks. The 

 little chicks first attempt to run off in single file ; if dis- 

 covered they scatter and squat down under clods of earth 

 or tufts of grass. Holding one in my hand near my pocket 

 it scuttled into it like a flash. The mother, when she sees 

 her brood discovered, tumbles about through the grass as 

 if wounded, in the effort to decoy the foe after her. If 

 she is successful in this, she takes a series of short flights, 

 keeping just out of reach of her pursuer, and when the 

 latter has been lured far enough from the chicks the hen 

 rises and flies off at a humming speed. 



By the middle of August the young are well enough 

 grown to shoot, and are then most delicious eating. Dif- 

 ferent coveys at this time vary greatly in their behavior 

 if surprised feeding in the open. Sometimes they will not 

 permit of a very close approach, and will fly off after one 

 or two have been shot ; while again they will show per- 

 fect indifference to the approach of man, and will allow 

 the latter to knock off the heads of five or six with his 

 rifle before the rest take the alarm and fly off. They now 

 go more or less all over the open ground, but are especial- 



