Redruff 49 



vigor, whose ruff is not only larger, but by 

 a peculiar kind of intensification is of a deep 

 coppery red, iridescent with violet, green, and 

 gold. Such a bird is sure to be a wonder to 

 all who know him, and the little one who had 

 squatted on the chip, and had always done what 

 he was told, developed before the Acorn Moon 

 had changed, into all the glory of a gold and 

 copper ruff — for this was Redruff, the famous 

 partridge of the Don Valley. 



IV 



One day late in the Acorn Moon, that is, 

 about mid-October, as the grouse family were 

 basking with full crops near a great pine log 

 on the sunlit edge of the beaver-meadow, they 

 heard the far-away bang of a gun, and Redruff, 

 acting on some impulse from within, leaped 

 on the log, strutted up and down a couple of 

 times, then, yielding to the elation of the 

 bright, clear, bracing air, he whirred his wings 

 in loud defiance. Then, giving fuller vent to 

 this expression of vigor, just as a colt frisks to 

 show how well he feels, he whirred yet more 

 loudly, until, unwittingly, he found himself 

 drumming, and tickled with the discovery of his 

 new power, thumped the air again and again till 



