290 AMERICAN GAME. 
less than seven hen birds gathered around a single male, 
all in turn expectant of his looked-for attentions, and all 
gratified by a share of his notice. If this be not 
Polygamy, I should like to receive the Grand Turk’s 
opinion on the subject, as I confess myself, if it be any 
thing less, in a state of absolute benightedness. 
The Ruffed Grouse begins her nest very early in May, 
and lays from eight to fifteen brownish-white, unspotted 
eggs, nearly the size of those of a pullet. With the 
exact period of this bird’s incubation I am not acquaint- 
ed; the young birds run the instant they clip the shell ; 
obey the cluck of the mother, as chickens that of the 
hen ; and are tended by her with extreme care and 
solicitude. In case of her being surprised with her 
young about her, she resorts to all the artifices practiced 
by the Quail, and even by the comparatively dull and 
stolid Woodcock, to draw away the intruder from the 
vicinity, feigning lameness, and incapacity to fly, until 
she shall have lured away the pursuer far from the 
hiding-place of her fledglings. Then she shall whirr 
away on resonant and powerful pinions, up, up above 
the tops of the tall pines and hemlocks, and thence skate 
homeward noiseless on balanced wings, where she will 
find them close ensconced among the sheltering fern 
tufts, or the matted winter-greens and whortleberry 
bushes, viewless to the most prying eye, and undiscover- 
able, save to the nose of the unerring spaniel. But 
once returned, you shall see them emerge, chirping 
