11 



3. The GallincB are less migratory than any of the others, 

 and the local family Tetraonidce are practically resident where- 

 ever found, migrating only when compelled to on account of the 

 home supply of food being frozen or snow covered, depending on 

 their swift, bullet-like flight and their coloration and skill to 

 elude enemies. Even the Ptarmigan, the most northern genus, 

 are only slightly migratory, turning white in winter and brown 

 in summer as a protection from enemies. 



OUR GROUSE. 



The effects of civilization upon our game birds have been 

 quite striking, differing with each order. Formerly all the water 

 fowl were much more regularly and abundantly distributed over 

 the country, but with the advance of civilization, the introduc- 

 tion of harvest machinery, the puffing of the locomotive, the 

 reclaiming of the bogs and sloughs — their original nesting sites 

 — they are rarer. The ducks and such members of the Limicoloi 

 as frequented these places have been compelled to retire with 

 the Indian to the wilder and less accessible places, while such 

 as are only migratory have shortened their stopover periods with 

 us, while local breeding species now congregate on the larger 

 lakes to await their friends from the north on their southern 

 journey. 



The effects on the Gallince have been very different, reveal- 

 ing in one case a change of habit to suit changed conditions, a 

 change of habitat in a second, and the advance of a better 

 adapted species in a third. 



(a) When this country was first settled the ruffled grouse or 

 partridge (Bonasa umhellus) was a numerous and unsuspicious 

 bird in all our small bluffs, being easily flushed, and allowing an 

 approach sufficiently close to knock it from the tree with a stick 

 or snare it with a noose on a pole. At the present time the bird 

 thrives in the vicinity of civilization, but is quite cunning, being- 

 difficult to flush, seldom alighting in trees, and placing itself in 

 hiding with the greatest alacrity and remaining hidden most 

 successfully. 



(b) The sharp-tailed grouse {Pedioccetes phasianellus var., 



