Bird 
illustration shows. It can move a 
considerable weight in this way, and 
no doubt finds the accomplishment 
of the greatest use in securing the 
insects and other small creatures on 
which it feeds. 
Dy 
Tur two last photographs are of 
the nest of the Rufted 
Grouse (Bonasa wm- 
bellus)—one showing 
the eggs and the other the bird. 
These have been sent from Okana- 
ean by Mr. R. Leckie-Kwing, who 
contributes the following note: 
“This handsome species can be 
found in almost every part of the 
Province, and apparently is quite as 
much at home in the higher altitudes and pine- 
clad mountain slopes as it 1s in lower-lying 
and open stretches of country. The manners 
of these grouse are solitary; often they are 
found singly or in pairs, although in the 
late fall coveys of twenty or more are met 
A Game Bird 
of British 
Columbia. 
NEST 
AND EGGS OF RUFFED GROUSE. 
Photograph by D. Le Souef, Melbourne. 
Notes 
os 
HEN VICTORIA LYRE-BIRD. 
with. A marked peculiarity of the male 
bird is the habit he has of drumining, a 
peculiar and penetrating sound made by his 
wings when amorously calling his mate. 
The birds begin to pair early in April, 
building their nest in May. This is placed 
on the ground, usually in some well-sheltered 
spot and extremely difficult to find. The eggs 
are from eight to fifteen in number, of a 
brownish-white colour, and about the same 
size as a pheasant’s. The young leave the 
nest as soon as hatched, and behave very 
much in the same manner as young pheasants 
or partridges, although the mother-bird is much 
more courageous in guarding her young than 
either of these birds. In the early autumn 
ruffed grouse fall easy victims to the gun, 
although later on in the season they become 
very much wilder and are difficult to shoot. 
With a good dog they are easily discovered, 
and when young they ave more often treed 
than not, allowing the sportsman (if I may 
call him so) to get below the tree and shoot 
them off one by one, till often a whole covey 
is wiped out. With a shot gun there is no 
sport at all in killing them thus, and very 
little even with a small-bore rifle; the weapon 
T always use is a “22 pistol with a 6-n. barrel, 
With this minute and hght weapon a steady 
hand and some considerable practice 1s required 
ere the marksman can count upon making a 
decent bag. Where birds are plentiful I have 
shot as many as fifteen or twenty brace in a 
