

PINNATED GROUSE 233 



the arrival of the flocks in northern Iowa, but an 

 early spring with fair weather finds them abundant 

 in the southern tiers of counties in Minnesota, 

 and many flocks pass still farther north. The 

 most remarkable feature of this movement is found 

 in the sex of the migrants. It is the females that 

 migrate, leaving the males to brave the winter's cold. 

 Mr. Miller, of Heron Lake, Minn., fairly states 

 the case when he says: The females in this latitude 

 migrate south in the fall and come back in the spring, 

 about one or two days after the first ducks; and they 

 keep coming in flocks of from ten to thirty for about 

 three days, all flying north. The grouse that stayed 

 all winter are males/ " 



Audubon noticed and spoke of these movements 

 nearly a hundred years ago, for in his account of this 

 species he says : 



"During the first years of my residence at Hender- 

 son (Ky.), in severe winters, the number of grouse of 

 this species was greatly augmented by large flocks of 

 them that evidently came from Indiana, Illinois and 

 even from the western side of the Mississippi. They 

 retired at the approach of spring." 



When John James Audubon first lived in Kentucky, 

 the "Barrens" by which is meant open stretches of 

 land without timber swarmed with these birds, and 

 they were looked on more or less as a pest. They were 

 credited with committing much mischief among the 

 fruit trees of the orchards in winter, and in the spring 

 they fed on the grain in the new-sown fields. They 



