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Bird - Lore 



as Mr. Armstrong believed the sound of this was largely responsible for the 

 bird's sustained interest. Our visit came to a triumphant conclusion with the 

 most sensational 'act' of all when Mr. Armstrong took the bird with him to 

 the seat of the tractor and went rolling and thundering away down the road 

 with Billy riding on his shoulder ! 



Billy is not the first queer Grouse whose acquaintance has been made in 

 New York state. He is the 1920 male counterpart of 'Biddy,' the now famous 



TOOK THE BIRD WITH HIM TO THE SEAT OF THE TRACTOR" 



hen Partridge who lived in the wooded hills near Oneonta and became friendly 

 with a company of wood-choppers in midwinter. Even^when summer (1918) 

 came, Biddy could be easily coaxed from her cover' by the sound of chopping 

 wood or the beating of a club on a log. She would box and play but would not 

 voluntarily permit herself to be picked up. A noteworthy incident in Biddy's 

 career was her disappearance at the opening of the hunting season in 19 18 and 

 her reappearance nearly a year later at West Burlington, Otsego County, 

 approximately twenty^miles northwest of her home of the year before. One 

 would not expect a representative of a supposedly 'sedentary' species to travel 



