suit hardly worth while unless the 
legal brace or brace and a half can be 
picked up to fill a mixed bag of quail, 
pheasant or hare. Good sport is, how¬ 
ever, still possible in certain Northern 
districts and in many parts of Canada. 
yHE nearest relative on the North, 
where their ranges frequently 
overlap, is his handsome cousin the 
Canada Grouse or Spruce Partridge of 
the silent evergreen forests. Found 
along our own borders and ranging 
well north in Labrador, this bird of 
the deep woods is familiar to every 
Canadian hunter and trap¬ 
per. Though at times found 
among the alders and ma¬ 
ples and on the hardwood 
ridges, his favorite haunts 
are among the quiet moss- 
carpeted forests of spruce, 
fir and juniper. Very 
good in the early autumn, 
his dark meat later in the 
season becomes unpleasant¬ 
ly bitter, due to his winter 
diet of the buds of spruce 
and other coniferous trees. 
The male in his full plum¬ 
age of dark-mottled gray 
on back, crimson line over 
eye and black and white 
breast is a beautiful mem¬ 
ber of the family, and 
though not much pursued 
for sport he, however, often 
makes a welcome addition 
to the fare of the wilder¬ 
ness hunter. When dis¬ 
turbed his flight is usually 
a very short one to some 
nearby tree, and in his 
more lonely retreats so tame 
is he as to seemingly border 
upon imbecility. 
Once while moose hunting 
I had a curious example of 
this bird’s seeming inabil 
ity to recognize danger. 
^ o — “v/vin uttii y 
with an old hunter I had camped for 
a couple of nights in a grove of alders 
bordering a small lake and near a bar¬ 
ren where we had been calling. It was 
a particularly lonely spot a long - way 
from our home camp and to reach it 
we had considerably shortened the 
journey by “riding” a couple of logs 
across the lake, paddling and pushing 
with some hastily constructed setting- 
poles. We had traveled very “light,” 
and on the second evening had reluc¬ 
tantly decided to return to the main 
camp next day as our provisions were 
about exhausted. Just as I awakened 
on the third morning a fluttering of 
wings attracted my attention and I 
saw seven or eight spruce partridges 
sitting about on the low branches of 
the/alders nearby. We wanted some very 
much for the pot, but I had no desire 
to disturb the whole neighborhood with 
the report of a big-game rifle, and no 
stones being at hand we decided to 
try to snare some of the birds. Fish¬ 
ing a piece of a salmon leader from a 
pocket I tied it to the end of a long, 
thin pole, allowing for an open run¬ 
ning noose of about eight inches in 
diameter. Thus armed, I shoved the 
end of my pole towards the nearest 
bird. As I clumsily let it touch the 
branch he was on, he only fluttered to 
another a few feet away, when with 
greater care I was able to get the open 
Photo by Ernest Miller 
MOTHER GROUSE ON HER NEST 
In company 
Page 613 
noose over the bird’s head and with a 
quick jerk had him fast and brought 
him to the ground. Notwithstanding 
more or less blundering about with my 
somewhat awkward weapon, I was 
able to secure two more of these con¬ 
fiding creatures so that our larder was 
sufficiently restocked. We stayed on 
another night and I called up and 
killed a big moose, not half a mile 
away, just before sunrise next morn¬ 
ing, and attributed my success partly 
to our care not to disturb things by 
firing at other game. 
gXCEPTING the Arctic, or Rock 
. Ptarmigan, the most northerly 
member of the entire grouse family is 
the Ptarmigan or willow grouse. He is 
found on the bare hills of northern 
Canada and on the high, rough barrens 
of Newfoundland and Labrador. In 
summer and autumn of a mottled-brown 
and grayish color, save his breast 
which is white, he, like many other 
creatures of northern latitudes, changes 
as winter comes to a garb of snowy 
white, with legs completely feathered 
to the toe-nails and so matches in with 
his bleak surroundings as to more 
readily escape the keen eye of fox or 
hawk. 
A sportsman friend of St. John’s 
Newfoundland, told me that he had 
good sport with these birds over dogs, 
and the rocky barrens covered here and 
there with low brush and 
berry bushes make a de¬ 
lightful shooting-ground to 
tramp over in the crisp au¬ 
tumn weather. 
QNCE, on an extended 
hunting trip in the in¬ 
terior of Newfoundland, we 
had made our camp in a 
hollow of some high, rough 
barrens and coming in 
from stalking one day came 
across several coveys of 
Ptarmigan. I had a shot¬ 
gun back at camp and so 
next morning walked the 
barrens for birds. To cover 
more ground, I had my 
guide walk abreast, but 
fifty yards to one side of 
me. We flushed two co¬ 
veys and I killed fifteen 
birds during the morning. 
They would jump up in twos 
and threes and singles and 
made very nice shooting. 
On warm, still days they 
seemed much tamer than 
in sharp, blustery weather 
when, very wild, they 
would flush off and take 
long, strong flights. 
All the members of the 
grouse family are hardy birds. Unlike 
quail, the ruffed g - rouse can withstand 
the most rigorous winter. Its habit of 
“budding” on poplars and birches is 
its salvation during times of heavy 
snow, as it is always able to have 
plenty of food. Lack of food, not cold 
weather and heavy snows, kills birds 
in the winter. 
Grouse, like all other game birds are 
subject to the attack of many kinds of 
vermin. Chief among their enemies 
are foxes, crows, domestic cats (gone 
wild) and several species of hawks and 
owls. Sportsmen can do much to im¬ 
prove the shooting in their covers by 
regular and systematic vermin hunts. 
Crows may and should be hunted at all 
times ot the year. They do a g’reat 
amount of damage during the nesting- 
season, frequently driving the hen birds 
from their nests and eating the eg'gs. 
