IN THE CANADIAN WOODS. 145 



burrow, and even the bears with their cubs are sleeping 

 in their secret haunts. 



Few indeed of the hardier birds that winter with us 

 are now seen to venture from the close coverts of the 

 dense cedar swamps; only on chance sunny days the 

 crossbill, the pine grosbeak or the hardy blue jay will 

 come near our dwellings, and the little spotted wood- 

 pecker be heard upon the trunk of some neighboring 

 monarch of the forest tapping and rapping as busy as 

 a bee. 



The hunter and the lumberman may sometimes catch 

 sight of the little tree creeper and the titmouse flitting 

 among the pines in search of the insects hidden in the 

 bark and cones, or hear the rapid sonorous strokes of 

 ths large woodpecker, — the red-capped "cock of the 

 woods " — hammering away on some old tree and strip- 

 ping down great sheets of bark from the fast decaying 

 trunk ; but only in the thickest of the forest would this 

 be, for rarely is this large species met with elsewhere. 



The ruffed grouse that is commonly called "wood 

 partridge'' is not migratory; both it and the spruce 

 partridge abide the winter hidden in the spruce and 

 hemlock woods. All through the cold months of the 

 Canadian season they feed on the scanty berries of the 

 wintergreen, the buds of spruce, and the red bark of the 

 wild raspberry. The latter imparts a red tinge and 

 much bitterness to the flesh, and by the month of 

 February renders it unfit for food. 



