138 



WILD ANIMALS OT GLACIER NATIONAL PARK. 



ti'iiil on successive days three broods whirred up from almost under 

 the feet of the first horse, making him shj' and jump as if lie had 

 surprised a bear. One of the first brood, instead of flushing, stood by 

 his guns, trusting instinctively to his protective coloration and atti- 

 tudes. Drawn up thin and tall in unbirdlike form, the little brown 

 fledgling stood on a branch close to the trail looking greatly scared as 

 we passed. When the second brood sprang up from before us, one of 

 them calmly took his stand down the road right in the way of the 

 prancing Iiorse — a cocky little half-grown grouse with small crest up, 

 ruffs spread, and short tail flashing — sword drawn across our path ! 

 As we rode down on him he flew to his brothers in the cottonwoods. 



Photograph by E. II. Warren. 



Fig. 43. — Fciiinlc iit;ii'jin,:^;in in smiinier. 



but a flicking fan tail that we caught bight of may have been his, 

 venting his last bravado. As we sat on our horses listening to the low 

 conversational notes of the brood, their mother, showing her adult 

 tail band, gave a low purring call and led them off — she would take 

 no more chances with her adventurous spirits ! The third family 

 which we surprised near the Canadian boundary line had no bold 

 knight errant to stay us, and tlie mother, crouching low in decoy, 

 ran off on one side of the road while the brood dispersed on the other. 

 Two days later an old cock, disturbed when dusting himself, stood 

 his ground valorously. To be sure he had lost his tail, but he spread 

 his black epaulettes with great effect as he strutted off through the 

 lodgejuole pines. 



