86 



With Rod and Gun i?i New England 



But in most sections, particularly where sportsmen are numerous, it is 

 quite a different bird, and on the least approach of danger it is off with a 

 thundering whirr to a more secure neighborhood. 



The nest of the grouse, loosely constructed of twigs and dead leaves, 

 is usually placed beneath a bunch of brush or evergreen thicket, or under 

 the lee of a log or rock ; the eggs, from eight to twelve in number, are 

 usually of a yellowish-white, and are marked more or less with brown and 

 drab spots. 



The female remains motionless on the nest, even if it is closely 

 approached, and I once, in Ohio, found one sitting on her eggs so persist- 

 ently that she actually permitted me to lift her from the nest. During the 

 season of incubation the males congregate together, or at any rate remain 

 apart from the hens, until the young birds are nearly full-grown, when 

 they join them and remain with them, if undisturbed, until the ensuing 

 spring. 



The chicks follow the mother about almost as soon as they are 

 hatched ; they are pretty, fluffy little things, full of activity in the pursuit 

 of insects, on which they feed. The mother guards them with the most 

 tender solicitude, and if a person approaches she gives a warning cry, at 

 which they instantly hide among the dead leaves and shrubbery, while 

 she, counterfeiting lameness, Mutters before him, on the ground, until she 

 leads the intruder away from her brood, when she flies off and returns to 

 her family by a circuitous route. 



I once came suddenly upon a brood of these young birds, when the 

 mother, taken by surprise, uttering a harsh cry, flew at my foot, and com- 

 menced pecking it fiercely ; the young scrambled off, uttering faint 

 "peets" when the old bird, perhaps astonished at this departure from her 

 usual modesty, suddenly retreated, and concealed herself. 



The young chicks are often destroyed by wood ticks, which fasten to 

 the heads of the birds, and hang there, sucking the life blood of their 

 victim until death ensues. Black flies and mosquitoes, I have no doubt, 

 also cause the death of many, for such has proved the case with another 

 species, the Tctnw lagof>us> which, in Norway, according to Laestadius, is 

 often destroyed by these pests. 



Skunks, raccoons, and other vermin, also eat the eggs, and the wonder 

 is, that with all its enemies, for the grouse has not a friend in the world, 

 the race it not extinct. 



Although foxes, lynxes, hawks and owls kill great numbers, the 

 greatest destruction to the adult birds is wrought by the snare. The 

 writer has examined many hundreds of them in various markets, and prob- 

 ably not one in ten bore shot marks, but, almost invariably, the sign of the 

 fatal moose was visible on the neck. The great number that are 

 annually thus destroyed may be imagined when it is stated that in Boston, 



