THE RUFFED GROUSE. 105 



bation seems to be responsible, in part, for the assertion 

 that the males are impartial in their love-making; but if, 

 the desertion be wholly the act of the female, through 

 fear that the cock will destroy her eggs, or chicks, for 

 the purpose of a new courtship, the argument loses its 

 force. I incline to this theory, from never having found 

 a male with the mother of chicks, and from the habit the 

 hen has of concealing her nest when leaving it in search 

 of food. 



It is quite certain that mature birds of both sexes are 

 often found with well-grown broods after the 1st of 

 September; and that, under favorable conditions, these 

 harmonious relations continue until the young seek 

 mates in the spring. If the mature birds thus found are 

 the parents of the brood, it would seem that something 

 beyond chance brings and keeps them together, and is 

 suggestive of a renewal of the former relationship. In 

 case of unavoidable separation, or more females than 

 males, new ties might, and probably would, be formed; 

 but the violation of Nature's law — if such it can be called 

 — on the part of the hen is more technical than real. 

 The great i^assion shown by the male during three months 

 of each year, and his apparent indifference at other 

 times, would seem to be jjrima facie evidence of a more 

 elastic virtue; still, unless an equal number of cocks and 

 hens could be cooped together, I should consider all 

 experiments touching this x)oint unsatisfactory. 



Mr. Battel le, before referred to, has had the following 

 experience: Twice he found one set of fertile and one of 

 sterile eggs in a cooj) of two hens and a cock, but each 

 time the sterile laying was begun within a week after the 

 male had been placed in the coop, while the fertile eggs 

 were laid two or three weeks later. Mr. Battelle's ex- 

 perience leads him to think the bird polygamous, or at 

 least polygynous, though I believe he still lacks positive 



