, thickets and sunny open spots among the 

 ledges, where you might, with good-luck, 

 <3^/ye O/'Beec/i find him on special days at any season. But 

 ^Ta'frid^e he had all the migratory instincts of a New- 

 5^^ foundland caribou. In winter he moved 



south, with twenty other grouse, to the foot 

 of the ridge, which dropped away into a 

 succession of knolls and ravines and sunny, 

 well-protected little valleys. Here, fifty years 

 ago, was the farm pasture ; but now it had 

 grown up everywhere with thickets and 

 berry patches, and wild apple trees of the 

 birds' planting. All the birds loved it in 

 their season ; quail nested on its edges ; and 

 you could kick a brown rabbit out of almost 

 any of its decaying brush piles or hollow, 

 moss-grown logs. 



In the spring he crossed the ridge north- 

 ward again, moving into the still, dark woods, 

 where he had two or three wives, with as 

 many broods of young partridges; all of 

 whom, by the way, he regarded with aston- 

 ishing indifference. 



Across the whole range — stealing silently 

 out of the big woods, brawling along the 



