Bonasa Umbellus, Rex. 37 



day the poor chick grew thinner and 

 scrawnier, while his sturdy brothers and 

 sisters went steadily along in development, 

 and the brood would soon have numbered 

 only seven had not the mother bird fortu- 

 nately led them far into the dank, cool 

 swamp on one torrid day, where much to 

 their delight was found a patch of skunk 

 cabbage with its heavy fruit. How the 

 mother did enjoy tearing open the green 

 fleshy balls for the seeds, and the little 

 fellows feasted upon the pulp like veritable 

 gluttons, not knowing that at the same 

 time the life of the invalid in their family 

 was to be saved. The pungent aroma 

 had only just begun to circulate through 

 their veins when the young tick loosed his 

 death-like grip and buzzed from one 

 chicken to another, trying to find one that 

 was agreeable, but they were all alike and 

 so it sidled up to a passing rabbit and 

 there found lodgment. In a few days it 

 had discarded its wings and then there 

 was no danger of its troubling the young 

 grouse again. The old tick had tumbled 

 off overpowered at the same time that the 



