(I) 
1889. ' 
M a i n e. 
I,. Umbagog, 
These Grouse were more numerous this autumn than I have 
known them to be for fifteen years. Their abundance is prob¬ 
ably explained by the fact that there was less than two feet 
of snow and no hard crust last winter, and remarkably dry 
weather during the early spring. Few were seen about the 
openings or wood-roads during the first half of September, 
but after the leaves.fell great numbers of them appeared a- 
round the edges of the openings, the shores of the lake and 
rivers and the wood- as well as on some of the travelled 
roads that pass through the woods. On.the carry road between 
the lakes, over one hundred were killed in three weeks. 
The hunters say that the Grouse come to the roads to 
bask in the sun and to get gravel, into the openings for the 
sake of the sun and to pick clover and so forth. They also 
are very fond of .buckwheat and often feed out into a buckwheat 
stubble for a distance of fifty yards from the edge of the 
woods. Oat stubbles do not similarly attract them. 
Gut few are seen during rainy or.very cloud 
'■ WJVv A/ 1 — * 1 
they remain m the shelter of the dense wood 
iptherxl&en 
best 
f v 
time to find them in the openings and roads is after a cold 
frosty night about nine or ten o'clock ip the forenoon when the 
sun is warm. The stiller and warmer the day, the tamer the 
birds. '.During cold, windy days they are sometimes so wild 
that it is. difficult to get within shot of them. 
They are in small flocks, rarely single, during September; 
but most of these flocks become broken and scattered during 
the first week of October, although a few keep together until 
the close of the month. 
Few wild birds are more absurdly tame, or rather stupid, 
than,these Grouse>guring warm, still weather. Upon seeing 
the hunter, t h e*. xrrran? 1 abt - y stretches up its neck and 
stands perfectly still, staring at him in stupid astonishment. 
It will ordinarily permit him to approach wuhin about ten 
yards without moving, and sometimes to wit hi" as many 
, feet, ^r^mally o«4 rg--7*g rre^T-^-n-otrgh• —fe-o alarmist, 
U"bobs its head slightly up and down, at the same time uttering 
