222 A SPORTING PARADISE 



his personal observations, and his narrative is 

 so pictorial, that I quote from it in his own 

 words : 



u In the midst of a thicket of low black alders, 

 surrounded by a perfect hedge of bushes, I 

 found him at last. He was on the lower end 

 of a fallen log, gliding rapidly up and down, 

 spreading wings and tail and budding ruff, 

 as if he were drumming, and sending out his 

 peculiar call at every pause. Above him, in a 

 long line on the same log, five other ruffed 

 grouse (partridges) were sitting perfectly quiet, save 

 now and then, when an answer came to the 

 leader's call, they would turn their heads and 

 listen intently till the underbrush parted cautiously 

 and another bird flitted up beside them. Then 

 another call, and from the distant hillside a faint 

 kevit-kevit and a rush of wings in answer, 

 and another partridge would shoot in on swift 

 pinions to pull himself up on the log beside his 

 fellows. The line would open hospitably to let 

 him in ; then the row grew quiet again, as the 

 leader called, turning their heads from side to 

 side for the faint answers. 



" There were nine on the log at last. The 

 calling grew louder and louder ; yet for several 



