RUFFED GROUSE PARTRIDGE 151 



ber of occasions I have seen the eggs almost wholly 

 hidden by this simple means. 



Most sportsmen know how very difficult it is to 

 see game birds when they are not in motion. The 

 bird's feathers harmonize so admirably with its sur- 

 roundings whether these be the leaf-strewn ground 

 of October, the bare branches of December, or the yel- 

 lowing grass and weed stems of July that it is often 

 almost impossible to detect the bird, even though one 

 knows precisely where it is. I recall an occasion when, 

 happening to cross a fence which separated a road from 

 a mowing lot, I almost stepped on a female grouse as 

 I sprang to the ground. She was sitting on a nest with 

 thirteen eggs, at the foot of a large cedar. Often after 

 that I used to go down to the lot and slowly approach 

 the place to look at the bird as she sat on her eggs. 

 She soon became so accustomed to me that she mani- 

 fested no alarm, and I could approach quite close to 

 her. It always took me some little time to see the bird, 

 though she sat in plain sight, with only half a dozen 

 slender grass stems between her head and me. After 

 looking for some time at the spot where I knew she 

 sat, the shape of her head, her markings, and above all 

 her bright eye, would gradually grow out of the con- 

 fusion of the grass stems in front of her and the cedar 

 bark beyond, and I could see the whole bird plainly. 

 Yet if I turned my eyes away it again took a little time 

 to find and recognize her. 



The eggs hatch from the first to the middle of June, 

 and the young often number as many as a dozen or 



