Bird lore - Project Puffin

Some Canadian Grouse 5
ence to flying, but when standing still they allow for comparatively close
approach, and shot after shot may be fired at them with a small rifle before
they become alarmed.
Early in June, 1914, in central Alberta, I found a nest with sixteen eggs at
the foot of a poplar tree and, a few days later, one with thirteen eggs, which I
GRAY RUFFED GROUSE ON DRUMMING LOG
photographed in a similar position. The nests were well-made cups of dead
leaves, to which one or two soft feathers adhered; and in both cases the birds
sat very closely, trusting to the resemblance of their plumage to the surround-
ings to escape observation.
The chicks were little balls of yellow and chestnut down, with tiny gray
feathers forming on the wings. It is remarkable how early little Grouse are
able to fly, for they will take wing when hardly as big as a man's fist, and
although they may go only a short distance, it is almost impossible to find any
of them again. The hen bird calls to the chicks with little cries, very much
like the whining of a puppy.
The Hudsonian Spruce Grouse (Canachites canadensis) , as the name sug-
gests, are to be found in wilder woodland, where muskeg and heavy timber defy