Grouse 
L-' 
Although he writhed and twisted madly over several yards 
of ground before dying, the birds seemed to realize what 
had happened at once for they unconcernedly left him the 
moment after the pistol cracked. 
(^Returning to the river as the afternoon shadows 
were beginning to stretch out over the meadows, and walking 
silently in an old cart-path that skirted the woods on the 
meadow side, I literally stepped into the middle of a large 
brood of young Grouse, perhaps half grown. They rose on 
every side of me with a startling whir and flutter and at 
once vanished in the wall of foliage behind, but the mother 
instead of following them bravely remained, gliding swiftly 
about me through the grass, whining exactly like a dog. 
The birds still sing with much vigor. The water 
in the river is falling steadily i the channel choking up 
in places with Polygonum, etc. The Bull-frogs trump less 
often than a week ago. No cicadas yet. Bobolinks singing 
with unabated vigor but less frequentlyT^ 
33 
