8 THE OSPREY. 



to find the birds so common, and found none at all. By inquiry of a farmer, 

 I learned that one or two pairs had been seen "during haying" but since then 

 none had been observed. 



I do not dwell upon this theme of the disappearance of birds from^their 

 former haunts because the facts are new but to emphasize them. 



Every state is adopting some method of bird protection. More stringent 

 laws are advocated. How to make suitable laws is a legislative problem; how 

 to enforce them is another. Good laws well observed are better than any 

 laws, stringently enforced, but brolien under every favorable opportunity for 

 their infringement. Parental law and education of the youth will prove more 

 effective. 



When I was a boy, I was aot allowed to have a gun until I was old 

 enough to "know better." I once surreptitiously borrowed my father's 

 gun and went "a gunning"; but the exercise in the field was nothing com- 

 pared with the massage I received upon my return with my game — a robin. 



I do not believe there is a boy in Freeport today, large enough to carry 

 one, who has not a gun of some description, and notwithstanding the laws to 

 the contrary, small birds suffer in consequence. 



Speaking of guns reminds me that the ' 'Partridge' ' (Ruffed Grouse) in Free- 

 port has not decreased in numbers so conspicuously as one would expect. In 

 20 years there has been a falling off but even now the bird is not uncommon. 

 I think the decrease in numbers has not been more than commensurate with 

 the disappearance of suitable cover. The birds are wilder, however, and their 

 swift flight is more than an offset to the skill of the ordinary gunner. 



Relative to these grouse 1 must allude to the coloration. Very red birds 

 and light gray birds, with those of various intermediate phases of coloration, 

 occur in Freeport, a coast town, and the same thing was noticed in the Grouse 

 of extreme northern Maine. This, of course, is not a startling phenomenon, 

 but it is sufficient to attract the attention of one not conversant with the con- 

 dition of affairs among these birds. 



Mr. Robert Ridgway tells me that this is the overlapping or intergrad- 

 ing of the typical Bonasa umbellus and Bonasa umhellus togata. 



Pertinent to grouse, I recall that some years ago there was considerable 

 controversy, in some sportsman's journals, regarding the manner in which the 

 male birds drum. Whether it was ever settled or not I do not know. This 

 fall, for the first time, I saw a cock Grouse drumming. It was near Churchill 

 Lake in northern Maine. Our party was hungry for some meat other than 

 bacon. A bird was heard drumming. I seized my gun and started for the 

 bush. At first it was difficult to locate the source of the sound. After fully 

 half an hour of slow and stealthy approach, I got within sixty feet of the 

 bird; even then, I could not at first discern him clearly. He was crouching or 



