42 
GROUSE FAMILY. 
being met within the White Mountains of New Hampshire and 
tliroughout a great portion of the Northern Andes, towards 
the sources of the Missouri and Oregon. In winter it visits 
Canada, the interior of Maine, Michigan, sometimes the State 
of New York; and it even breeds round Halifax in Nova 
Scotia, as well as in the State of Maine. In Canada it is 
known by the name of the Wood Partridge; by others it 
is called the Cedar, or Spruce, Partridge. Sometimes the birds 
are sent in a frozen state from Nova Scotia and New Bruns- 
wick to Boston. 
The favorite resort of this species is in pine and spruce 
woods and cedar swamps, which they frequent in the winter 
for the purpose of feeding on the buds, oily seeds, and ever- 
green foliage, to which they also add juniper-berries. Their 
flesh, though palatable at all times, is considered best in sum- 
mer, when they feed much on berries, as the buds of the res- 
inous evergreens communicate an unpleasant flavor to the 
game. As usual, they nest on the ground with little art, in the 
slight shelter of fallen leaves and bushes, and are said by 
Audubon to lay 8 to 14 eggs of a deep fawn color, irregularly 
splashed with different tints of brown. They are readily ap- 
proached, and sometimes are said to be so unsuspicious as, 
like the Ptarmigan, to allow of being knocked down with a 
stick ; and round Hudson Bay are commonly caught by the 
aborigines in a simple noose fastened to a stake. When much 
disturbed, however, they betake themselves to trees, where 
they are readily approached and shot down. 
In the month of May, where they breed, in the State of 
Maine, the male struts before his mate, and beating his wings 
briskly against his body, produces a drumming noise, clearer 
than that of the Ruffed Crouse, which can be heard to a con- 
siderable distance. The males leave their mates as soon as 
incubation has commenced, and do not join them again until 
late in autumn. 
The “ Spruce Partridge,” as the bird is called by the gunners 
“down East,” is a fairly common resident of the timber districts 
in northern New England and the Provinces ; it occurs also in the 
