Ruffed Grouse. 237 
are nearly full-grown, when he joins the family, and dwells 
with it until spring. The period of incubation ranges from 
nineteen to twenty days. 
When first hatched the young follow the mother, and soon 
learn to comprehend her clucking call, as well as to act 
responsively thereto. Few mothers are more devoted to 
their children, and it is rare to find one more courageous and 
wily in their defence. Let the family be surprised by friend 
or foe, a single note of alarm is all that is necessary to cause 
the brood to scatter, and with the most clever adroitness to 
hide themselves beneath a bunch of leaves or grass. So 
successfully is the concealment accomplished, that a careful 
and protracted search is often necessary to discover their 
whereabouts. Often, when squatting by the roadside with 
her brood, the parent is taken unawares. This is the trial 
which she of all others seems to dread. To save her little 
ones she perils her own life by venturing upon an assault. 
Her first impulse is to fly at the face of the intruder, but 
sober thought comes to her rescue and teaches her the folly 
of such acourse. She yields to the thought and the very 
next moment we find her tumbling over and over upon the 
ground, apparently in the deepest distress, but soon to 
recover her self-possession in time to carry out the final piece 
upon the programme, a ruse in which lameness is imitated 
with wonderful ingenuity. While the mother is thus agi- 
tated, the birdlings are seen to scamper in every direction to 
places of shelter. Having accomplished her part, the happy 
mother now flies away, and by her well-known cluck soon 
gathers her brood together. The cry of the young is a 
simple gee‘, which is heard repeatedly during feeding, but 
only occasionally while nestling. Their food consists of the 
seeds of various plants and berries. While able to search for 
their own food, they derive, however, considerable assistance 
from the mother. 
Such cunning, wee creatures, when first they leave the 
egg, can only be compared with the young of the domestic 
