54 



Bird - Lore 



Where the Ruffed Grouse Sleeps 



Entering Pine Clearing, my attention was attracted to the pines, the 

 branches of which were heavily laden with snow. They looked very beautiful. 

 As my eyes Avandered around, I saw something dark beneath a small pine. 

 The object saw me too, and, as it moved, I discovered that it was a Ruffed 

 Grouse. It was in desperate haste to get away from me but floundered around 

 in the snow. After struggling along a few feet, with a supreme effort it rose 

 and went hurtling off through the grove. I examined its hole with interest, 

 carefully taking a step forward, when another Ruffed Grouse burst the snowy 

 covering not a foot from me and flew off, evidently for Pine Woods. As it 

 flew, I noticed that two of its tail feathers were missing. z\fter looking at its 

 hole, I entered Pine Grove, and presently came upon a number of Grouse 

 tracks and another hole. Looking in, I saw the dark plumage of a bird. I 

 waited some time to see whether the bird would move but it did not. Advanc- 

 ing to within a foot of it, I stood still, and yet it did not move, but as I was 

 about to brush the snow aside, out it burst and flew off through the trees. 

 Elated by this success, I started after another hole. As luck would have it, 

 I had not gone a hundred feet before I came upon one, this time closed up 

 except for a narrow space about the size of my finger. Taking off my glove, 

 I gently brushed the snow away and there was the back of a Ruffed Grouse! 

 I stroked it for a moment, oh! so softly, when the bird burst out and flew away, 

 giving me a most magnificent view of the finest bird in the neighborhood. — 

 John Mather Rogers (aged 15), Port Dickinson, N. Y. 



[Observation excellent, apparently exact in detail.^A. H. W.] 



ENTRANCE AND EXIT OF A RUFFED GROUSE'S NIGHT'S LODGING 

 Photographed by Richard S. Eustes at Randolph, N. H., Jan i, 1909 



