662 



North American Grouse. 



draped in snowy white, and squats unnoticed on the drift. In the 

 summer foliage his whiteness would allure each passing hawk, but 

 the brown, mottled color of his summer dress matches well the 

 bracken and the lichen, and he thus escapes observation. This same 

 care Nature bestows on the snow-bird and the great northern hare, 

 both of which frequent the snowy plains. 



But a summer evening is not long enough to write the story of 

 their lives. To obtain a technical knowledge of the varieties of 

 grouse 6r ptarmigan, one may study Wilson, or Audubon, or that 

 comprehensive work on ornithology, entitled " North American Birds, 

 by Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway." 



To appreciate the beauty and learn the ways and manners of the 

 birds of which we are writing, one must love them, and with Agassiz, 

 "wander away and away with Nature, the dear old nurse, who sang 

 to him night and day the rhymes of the universe." One must watch 

 these birds in their own homes — among the roughness of primeval 

 nature and amid the aroma of the balsam and the keen air of the 

 frosty October — hear them beat their muffled drums and challenge 

 all comers to their tournaments ; and it's a dull, cold heart that will 

 not throb in unison with their defiance, and love the hill-side the 

 better for their music. 



