. Outing. by the profusion of debris and un-dergrowth, and came presently to alarge, decayed tree trunk lying I was climbing over • it, somethinghappened. From the other side off wenta big bird with a tremendous racket,almost in my face, and disappeared likea flash. Beside the log was a depressionlined with dead leaves and feathers, andin it was a pile of buff-colored eggs,about a dozen in number. Another day, while passing through agrove of tall white pines, one of thosenice tracts with a carpet of fragrantpine needles clear of undergrowth, I wassurprised by a grouse flushing nea
. Outing. by the profusion of debris and un-dergrowth, and came presently to alarge, decayed tree trunk lying I was climbing over • it, somethinghappened. From the other side off wenta big bird with a tremendous racket,almost in my face, and disappeared likea flash. Beside the log was a depressionlined with dead leaves and feathers, andin it was a pile of buff-colored eggs,about a dozen in number. Another day, while passing through agrove of tall white pines, one of thosenice tracts with a carpet of fragrantpine needles clear of undergrowth, I wassurprised by a grouse flushing near meright from the open ground at the baseof a pine; there I found a nest and eggs,without any concealment other than the protective coloration of the broodingbird. There was another similar groveclosely adjoining this one, and a fewminutes later, as I passed through it, Istarted another grouse from her nest ina similar location. Two ruffed-grouse nests in a day isunusual luck, but I know of a survey- 24. THE WOODCOCK IS HARD TO SEE, BUT EASY TO PHOTOGRAPH WHEN ONCE HE HAS BEEN LOCATED. ing party which also found two in amornings jaunt in ordinary second-growth woodland, only a few gunshotsapart. It happened at that time thatI was hot-foot on the trail of the grousefor photographs, and had tramped thewoods that season many a mile to nopurpose. A member of the surveyingparty—it was their Indian guide—tookpity on me, and conducted me to thenests, three miles from the road, in anotch between two mountains. One nest had been broken up by somesnake or animal, but the other was intactand the bird was on. She was a shybeauty, a skulker, whose habit it was tosneak off on foot when she saw me com-ing. The nest was at the base of aclump of chestnut sprouts, and on thedark side at that. Not being able tocreep up on the bird, I set the cameraon the tripod concealed in a bush near-by, to make exposures by a thread froma distance. A merry chase she gave me for thenext three days. She w
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade, booksubjectsports, booksubjecttravel
