28 



JOURNAL OF MAINE ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



our morning walk. Some colored lab- 

 orers, men and women, were eating 

 their noon day meal in a neighboring 

 field, and from the group rose frequent 

 song and laughter. 



Red birds, Carolina wrens and mock- 

 ing birds flitted about us, and fed up- 

 on the crumbs we tossed them, and 

 the tiny blue gray gnat-catcher bal- 

 anced himself on the outermost twig of 

 an overhanging tree to peer at us, the 

 intruders. 



The only sound out of harmony with 

 nature, was the sudden; loud intermit- 

 tent "exhaust" of a cotton press, hid- 

 den behind the nearest grove. 



Surely this couldn't have been the 

 hot-bed of rebellion! Yet history, and 

 the graves over on Morris Island tell 

 us of a time when songs and happy 

 laughter were hushed, yet the birds 

 may have sported as joyously then as 

 now. Nature ruffles her face but lit- 

 tle over the sorrows and passions of 

 man. Did ever ycu gaze at a body 

 of water after it had witnessed a 

 drowning accident, expecting it to look 

 differently than before? It was with 

 some such feeling that I had suveyed 

 the landscape, and I was glad the 

 marks were not there. 



We returned to town at nightfall 

 well pleased with our day's ramble. 

 The trains of cotton teams showed no 

 diminution in numbers, but added to 

 our ears the unique falsetto calls of 

 the oyster women and the chimney 

 sweeps. 



JAMES CARROLL MEAD. 



*Read before the 7th annual meeting 

 held at Portland, Nov. 29, 1902. 



NOTES UPON THE RUFFED 

 GROUSE. 



Last fall I published something on 

 the colors and habits of the Ruffed 

 grouse in Maine. The present notes 

 comprise a few supplemental and con- 



firmatory observations made this sea- 

 son. I am not enough of a systematic 

 ornithologist to distinguish one of the 

 several sub-species of this bird from 

 another and really do not know upon 

 what characters they are founded. Re- 

 garding red and gray phases, however, 

 I may say that I have seen in the 

 Washington markets the so-called 

 "pheasants" of the southern region 

 presumably — perhaps from the moun- 

 tains of Pennsylvania, Maryland or 

 Virginia. In these we would naturally 

 look for at least a close approach to 

 typical Bonasa umbellus. However., 

 they were usually far less red than 

 many I have observed in Mame. I 

 have collected one of. the sub-species 

 in northeastern Oregon, which is sup- 

 posed to be one of the reddest, yet I 

 have killed one in extreme northern 

 Maine, or rather in Quebec near the 

 Maine border, that seemed to be fully 

 as red as the Oregon sub-species. This 

 is from recollection, however, and not 

 from comparison. 



I am sorry now that I did not try 

 to preserve at least the tails and wings 

 of the grouse shot in Maine last year. 

 This year I have saved a portion of 

 those obtained for food while in north- 

 ern Maine. I had not the facilities or 

 the time to prepare skins as I should 

 have liked to have done. The various 

 shades of red birds were considerably 

 less numerous amongst those obtained 

 this year, though occuring not so far 

 north. The red forms always seemed 

 smaller than the gray birds. Possi- 

 bly this may be ascribed to the fact 

 that most, if not all, of reddish colora- 

 tion were females. I have brought the 

 tails of the birds for you to examine if 

 you care to, though I doubt whether 

 they are of much scientific use. mere- 

 ly indicating the different shades of 

 the birds. 



This year I had a number of oppor- 



