SOME BIRDS 



him, as it invariably was. Once he went up a 

 stairway into the second story of the boat-house, 

 and was found in the hall-way above by one of 

 the men, who caught him and carrying him down- 

 stairs let him go. When set upon the ground, 

 he did not attempt to fly, nor did he seem in 

 the least alarmed, but shaking out his tumbled 

 feathers, walked quietly off into the bushes. One 

 September a full-grown young bird flew out 

 of the woods, across fifty feet of lawn, rushing 

 blindly" against the side of the house, to fall 

 dead on the ground with a broken neck. One 

 day Al Wilbur noticed a mother grouse cross- 

 ing the lawn with her brood, then almost full 

 grown. The mother, evidently a little dis- 

 turbed, darted into a near-by thicket, and called 

 to her brood to follow. They all obeyed except 

 one stubborn little chap, who remained behind 

 to attend to some delicacy he had found. The 

 mother clucked her commands again, but still 

 he paid no attention, whereupon she darted 

 out after the disobedient one, and giving him 

 a whack with her wing and an angry peck with 

 her bill, sent him scurrying in short order to 

 the thicket, to which refuge she herself walked 

 back sedately. The grouse is a careful mother, 



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