THE SPOTTED OR CANADA GROUSE. 
85 
than that of the Ruffed Grouse, and which can be heard at a considerable 
distance. The female places her nest beneath the low horizontal branches 
of fir trees, taking care to conceal it well. It consists of a bed of twigs, 
dry leaves and mosses, on which she deposits from eight to fourteen eggs, 
of a deep fawn colour, irregularly splashed with different tints of brown. 
They raise only one brood in the season, and the young follow the mother 
as soon as hatched. "The males leave the females whenever incubation has 
commenced, and do not join them again until late in autumn ; indeed, they 
remove to different woods, where they are more shy and wary than during 
the love season or in winter. 
This species walks much in the manner of our Partridge. I never saw 
one jerk its tail as the Ruffed Grouse does, nor do they burrow in the snow 
like that bird, but usually resort to trees to save themselves from their 
pursuers. They seldom move from thence at the barking of a dog, and 
when roused fly only to a short distance, uttering a few clucks, which they 
repeat on alighting. In general, when a flock is discovered, each indivi- 
dual forming it may be easily caught, for so seldom do they see men in 
the secluded places which they inhabit, that they do not seem to be aware 
of the hostile propensities of the race. 
Along the shores of the Bay of Fundy, the Spruce Partridge is much more 
abundant than the Ruffed Grouse, which indeed gradually becomes scarcer 
the farther north we proceed, and is unknown in Labrador, where it is 
replaced by the Willow Ptarmigan, and two other species. The females of 
the Canada Grouse differ materially in their colouring in different latitudes. 
In Maine, for instance, they are more richly coloured than in Labrador, 
where I observed that all the individuals procured by me were of a much 
greyer hue than those shot near Dennisville. The liko difference is per- 
haps still more remarkable in the Ruffed Grouse, which are so very grey 
and uniformly coloured in the Northern and Eastern States, as to induce 
almost every person to consider them as of a species distinct from those 
found in Kentucky, or any of the southern mountainous districts of the 
Union. I have in my possession skins of both species procured a thousand 
miles apart, that present these remarkable differences in the general hue 
of their plumage. 
All the species of this genus indicate the approach of rainy weather or a 
snow storm, with far more precision than the best bar.ometer ; for on the 
afternoon previous to such weather, they all resort to their roosting places 
earlier by several hours than they do during a continuation of fine weather. 
I have seen groups of Grouse flying up to their roosts at mid-day, or as 
soon as the weather felt heavy, and have observed that it generally rained 
in the course of that afternoon. When, on the contrary, the same flock 
Yol. V. 12 
