28 Bonasa Umbellus, Rex. 



dog-tooth violets had dropped their petals, 

 the white cornel flowers had turned to a 

 feeble fading pink, the hepaticas and 

 anemones become dingy, and in their 

 places the azaleas and trilliums came out 

 in full sponsal array. The ferns, which 

 fought their way through the resisting 

 cold ground with clenched fists, had now 

 unfolded a generous wealth of fronds 

 under the influence of a spring-time sun 

 which brought harmony for all nature with 

 its presence. 



The patient bird had seen the hosts of 

 warblers proceed bush by bush and tree 

 by tree from the southland toward the 

 northland, and it was time for her brood 

 to appear. When at last she heard a 

 faint tip-tapping and saw a movement 

 through a long crack in one egg, it was 

 not long before the gentle aid of her 

 bill had released a cunning little yellow 

 and brown head. Then a small strug- 

 gling wing appeared, and out tumbled a 

 dear, downy chick of a grouse. One after 

 another the eight young birds escaped, 

 and one of them in his hurry to be in the 



