PINNATED GROUSE 22J 



fearing that I might accidentally step on one, did not 

 search very carefully, and so did not see any. Two 

 days later, what I think must have been the same bevy 

 was again seen, but about half a mile from the place 

 where they were first seen. This time they were in a 

 more or less cleared space, and six of the young were 

 counted. One or two squatted just where they were, 

 and it looked as if one might go right up to them 

 and pick them up. I did not, however, disturb them. 

 These birds were apparently not over a week old. 



"On July 2 a mother heath hen and four young were 

 seen dusting in a road about n A.M. Upon seeing me 

 the mother ran to the bushes and called to the young. 

 As I went by I could hear the mother hen at the side 

 of the road in the bushes. The same day in the after- 

 noon, a mother hen and one young bird were seen. 



"On July 7, while walking through the brush near 

 the Cromwell cottage, soon after sundown, I heard 

 some peeping ahead. Getting on my hands and knees, 

 I crawled toward the sound. The peeping continued as 

 I approached, so I knew that I had not been per- 

 ceived. Finally, at a distance of some twenty or 

 twenty-five feet, I saw a mother hen with wings spread 

 under the thick foliage of a stunted oak. She was 

 more or less silent, only occasionally uttering a low 

 call, somewhat resembling that of a hen as she calls 

 her chicks at night under her wings. The young, how- 

 ever, peeped quite often as they stole in and out from 

 under the wings of the mother. I think they could 

 not have been much more than a day or two old. 



