84 UPLAND SHOOTING. 



During incubation, which lasts twenty-one days, and 

 until the chicks are half -grown, the males wander soli- 

 tary, or in twos and threes, keeping, however, within 

 easy reach of their respective drumming- stations, so that 

 their russet wives may occasionally be cheered by well- 

 known notes, and come to them, if their eggs be molested 

 by predatory vermin. Like the average man, they are 

 very busy elsewhere during the season which corresponds 

 with baby- wheeling, but by some strange instinct manage 

 to find their families when the work of raising the young 

 is over. This is about September 1st, and unless sepa- 

 rated by a scarcity of food, or persistent pursuit, the 

 members of each family, with the exception of some of the 

 young males, remain together until the following spring. 



The young can fly a few yards when a week or ten 

 days old; and being nearly the color of dead leaves, are 

 seldom captured. 



When danger threatens, the mother shows a brave 

 front, usually succeeding in diverting attention from her 

 young until they have found shelter. Everyone who 

 spends much time in the woods in June knows the 

 strength of this maternal love; how the wanderer is sud- 

 denly checked in his walk by the charge of an infuriated 

 bird, sometimes so determined that he steps back in 

 alarm or amazement before he realizes what is being 

 enacted; how the bird flies at the face, or pecks furiously 

 at the feet, before retreating and simulating a broken 

 wing, or leg, or both; and how, when the scattered 

 thoughts have been collected, and pursuit is made, the 

 maimed bird suddenly recovers, and flits away, leaving 

 no trace of her deftly concealed progeny. 



I have never seen anything in bird-life that compares 

 with this fierce attack of the mother, nor have I seen 

 acting that surpasses the subterfuge of the distressed and 

 trembling bird. 



