84 
THE SPOTTED OR CANADA GROUSE. 
assure you, reader, that to follow him through the dense and tangled woods 
of his native country, or over the deep mosses of Labrador, where he 
accompanied me afterwards, would be an undertaking not easily accom- 
plished. The weather was warm, and the musquitoes and moose flies did 
their best to render us uncomfortable. We however managed to follow our 
guide the whole day, over fallen trees, among tangled brushwood, and 
through miry ponds ; yet not a single Grouse did we find, even in places 
where he had before seen them, and great was my mortification, when, on 
our return towards sunset, as we were crossing a meadow belonging to his 
father, not more than a quarter of a mile from the village, the people 
employed in making hay informed us that about half an hour after our 
departure they had seen a fine covey. We were too much fatigued to go 
in search of them, and therefore made for home. 
Ever ardent, if not impatient, I immediately made arrangements for 
procuring some of these birds, offering a good price for a few pairs of old 
and young, and in a few days renewed my search in company with a man 
who had assured me he could guide me to their breeding grounds, and which 
he actually did, to my great pleasure. These breeding grounds I cannot 
better describe than by telling you that the larch forests, which are there 
called “ Hackmetack Woods,” are as difficult to traverse as the most tangled 
swamps of Labrador. The whole ground is covered by the most beautiful 
carpeting of verdant moss, over which the light-footed Grousfe walk with 
ease, but among which we sunk at every step or two up to the waist, our 
legs stuck in the mire, and our bodies squeezed between the dead trunks 
and branches of the trees, the minute leaves of which insinuated themselves 
among my clothes, and nearly blinded me. We saved our guns from injury, 
however, and seeing some of the Spruce Partridges before they perceived 
us, we procured several specimens. They were in beautiful plumage, but 
all male birds. It is in such places that these birds usually reside, and it 
is very seldom that they are seen in the open grounds, beyond the borders 
of their almost impenetrable retreats. On returning^ to my family, I found 
that another hunter had brought two fine females, but had foolishly neglected 
to bring the young ones, which he had caught and given to his children, 
who, to my great mortification, had already cooked them when my messen- 
ger arrived at his house. 
The Spruce Partridge or Canada Grouse breeds in the States of Maine 
and Massachusetts about the middle of May, nearly a month earlier than at 
Labrador. The males pay their addresses to the females by strutting before 
them on the ground or moss, in the manner of the Turkey Cock, frequently 
rising several yards in the air in a spiral manner, when they beat their wings 
•violently against their body, thereby producing a drumming noise, clearer 
