Concord, Mass.
1910
May 8
[May 8, 1910]

Nest of Ruffed Grouse

  Forenoon sunny & warm; afternoon cloudy & cool with showers.
  As I was crossing the opening behind Ball's Hill this morning
I heard a rustling in the dry leaves on the edge of the woods
near a large woodpile; the next instant I saw a small hen 
Partridge scuttling off in a peculiar manner with her body
flattened close to the ground, her head & neck carried low, her
wings partly open & their tips tracking. She moved very quickly
and evenly but in a devious course, winding in & out among
the stems of the trees. After going about ten or fifteen yards
she took wing in the usual manner & flew off over the swamp.
Feeling sure she had started from a nest I advanced cautiously
& presently caught sight of the eggs, wholly uncovered, in a
depression at the foot of a gray birch on the very edge of the
cover about 15 yards from where I had stood when I first
saw the bird & almost 20 yards from the mountain laurel
in which a Partridge nested last year hatching her brood. There 
were 12 eggs in the nest found to-day, two on top of the others.