HIDDEN TREASURE 8 9 



which comes in late April or early May and sings 

 all through the woods the best example of a cre- 

 scendo song in all bird-music. His nest on the ground 

 usually has a domed overhanging roof which makes 

 it resemble an old-fashioned Dutch oven. 



^ In spite of my ignorance there followed the hap- 

 piest week of my life. I forgot that I was an invalid, 

 as well as all the injunctions of my doctor. From 

 morning until night I hunted birds' nests. As usual 

 fortune favored the novice, and I found nests that 

 first week which I have found but few times since. 

 The very next morning, on the other side of Pond 

 Hill I turned a sudden corner of the path through 

 the dim green silence, and stepped right into^a 

 breakfast-party. Mrs. Ruffed Grouse, known in 

 that part of the country as partridge, was breakfast- 

 ing in the open path with at least a dozen little 

 grouse — or is it greese. Although taken by surprise, 

 neither she nor her children hesitated for the fraction 

 of a second. Falling upon the ground, she rolled and 

 flapped as if in the last agonies of death, whining 

 like a puppy and dragging herself almost to my feet. 

 I looked away from the covey for a minute, to watch 

 the bird struggling and whining at my very feet. 

 As I stretched my hand out toward her, she feebly 

 flopped away, still apparently well within reach. 

 I took a step or so after her, to see if she would really 

 permit herself to be caught. Suddenly realizing 

 that she was only decoying me away from her brood, 

 I turned back. Although I had gone less than six 

 feet, and the little birds had been huddled together 



