184 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING. 
teen. The young, like those of all gallinaceous birds, 
are able to run about soon after being hatched, and from 
the moment they appear until the family circle is broken 
up, the parents pay them the most devoted attention, 
often sacrificing their own lives to protect them from the 
attacks of hawks, foxes, and even man. The best 
protection the little creatures have is not, however, the 
courage of their guardians, but that given them by nature, 
for so closely do they resemble the landscape that it is 
extremely difficult to discover them amid the grass, 
leaves, and moss-covered crags to which they flee for 
shelter when alarmed. A man may be in the midst of 
large packs, yet not detect them unless they begin to 
move about, and even then their mild, prying eyes are 
the first: objects to attract his attention, for they may be 
seen when the body to which they belong is supposed to 
be a tuft of grass, moss, or lichen. 
The birds begin their southern migration in the far 
north about the end of October, when the heavy snow 
makes its appearance, and as they travel principally on 
foot, their numbers are constantly increased by fresh ac- 
cessions until they reach their winter home. Arrived 
there, they break up into groups, varying in number 
from six to sixty, and scatter over the country in search 
of food and shelter. When the indications of spring appear 
in March, they reassemble in large packs and march north- 
ward again, and on reaching their breeding grounds they 
pair off, the male, like other species of the family, winning 
his partner for the season by strutting before her in vari- 
ous attitudes, displaying his new spring dress, and call- 
ing her attention to his airs and graces by loud, rough 
notes. He repeats his croaking cry as often as possible 
every morning and evening, as if he were enamored of it, 
but stops it as soon as he has found a mate. 
The food of this species consists of insects, berries, 
mosses, lichens, and the buds of willows and other trees, 
