Bob Whites, Grouse, etc. 



about it. A sitting hen, after scratching a depression in the 

 ground, first lays three or four eggs before placing any nesting 

 material in the cavity ; then she has the absurd habit of picking 

 up straws, leaves, etc., as she leaves the nest, and tossing them 

 backward over her head, to land perhaps on the nest, or perhaps 

 just in the opposite direction if she has faced about with head 

 toward the eggs to secure some inviting material. When a quan- 

 tity of litter has been collected, she will then sit on the eggs, reach 

 out to gather it in and place it about her until the cradle is very 

 deep and nicely bordered with grass and leaves. Jealousy, a ruling 

 passion with hens at the nesting season, often leads them to 

 steal one another's eggs. One nest should properly contain about 

 a dozen, more or less, the ground color buff or pale brown, the 

 spots and speckles reddish brown or umber ; but so great is the 

 variation of color and markings that some eggs have no markings 

 at all, while others are beautifully and clearly decorated. It is 

 possible to rub or wash off markings from many fresh-laid eggs. 

 Laying commences about the first week of June ; incubation lasts 

 seventeen days, and by the middle of July the precocious chicks 

 are able to reach the low branches of the evergreens in their first 

 flights and move about on them like the adults that would make 

 expert tight-rope walkers. Tender terminal spruce buds, hack- 

 matack needles, the berries of Solomon's seal, pine needles and 

 cones, and such fare give this grouse's flesh a dark color and a 

 bitter, resinous flavor that tempts only the hungriest woodsmen ; 

 although in the berry season, when the birds leave the evergreens 

 to feed on tender leaf buds and fruit, the rich reddish meat is 

 much sought. An immense quantity of gravel is swallowed to 

 aid digestion. Indians tell of following great packs of these 

 grouse that furnished meat to a tribe for weeks ; but a bevy of 

 five or six birds is the largest recorded by scientists. 



Ruffed Grouse 



CBonasa umbellus) 



Called also. -PARTRIDGE; PHEASANT; BIRCH PARTRIDGE 



Length 16 to 1 8 inches. 



Male and Female Upper parts chestnut varied with grayish and 

 yellowish brown, white, and black ; head slightly crested ; 



272 



