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176 THE; CONDOR Vol. XVII quietly down the potato patch toward the woods in which I supposed the old grouse was hiding. Near the foot of the patch, on a mowed strip between it and the woods, to my surprise a pointed head, and' long neck, and then a mottled body appeared. Had the old grouse seen the retreating farmer and failing to discriminate between one and two, inferred that the coast was clear and come out of the woods to gather her brood ? On discovering me she made a curved flight, with pointed tail showing, swinging around me into the woods to which she was followed by one of her young. After an interval during which I sat silently in the shadow of the woods the old grouse flew back across the width of the field to the place from which we had first flushed her and where she had probably been engaged in the useful occupation of eating potato-bugs. The yo'ung were calling in the woods behind me? and before long, bursting out over my head, a little yellowish brown form crossed over to the potato patch in the direction the mother had taken. But its short wings were unequal to her long flight and it soon soared down, though after a rest it again started in her direction. A second young one essayed to follow, but too timid, circled back to cover once more. Small voices came from the woods behind and on both sides of me growing closer till a soft little whistle--whee-aye-ee--made me look down. About a yard away, on the edge of the broken ground stood a yellowish nestling streaked and spotted with black and white, wisps of down blowing about its head and body. Stretching its long neck till it looked as if on tip-toe it gazed in the direction its mother and brother had taken. Its bit of a tail jerked as it whistled, its bill opening for the first syllable--whee--and staying open'for the aye-ee. Three m. ore young flew out of the woods while I w_aited, but dropped into the corn field beside the potato patch. One of them ran timorously up between two. rows, squatting down under some friendly corn blades; but the cover was so thin that the little fellow's dark neck line showed. Kingbirds, gulls, a Sparrow Hawk, and a l?larsh Hawk flew over. A Richardson ground squirrel that ventured out wisely scooted across the field and then sat up picket-pin style looking for danger. No one knew who might come next. So the well- trained little grouse lay close. Other families of young were soon abroad in the land. When driving between Red Willow and Devil's Lake on July 8 and 9, we scared up a number of quarter-grown broods, pretty little striped stubby-tailed chicks. Sometimes the mother burst out of cover, ostentatiously soaring off in the opposite direc- tion from her young; once she ran enticingly along the road ahead of us, and once walked slowly and deliberately over the winrows of hay by the road, her sharp tail pointed up, while at least eleven young scattered out in different d?rectious. Another day not far from Red Willow Lake, i?r. Bailey in driving Over the prairie came onto an old grouse with a large family of little chicks. While the chicks with a scurry melted into the grass, the old grouse began a painful flut- tering and flopping and tumbling on the ground just in front of the horses. The shepherd dog at the rear of the wagon bolted past the brood and thought that he almost caught the old bird who flopped and sputtered just beyond his nose till he was well in for the chase, when she led him on to the top of the farthest ridge, nearly a mile away. She then soared off in a wide circle and later, as the dog, panting and exhausted, caught up with the wagon a quarter of a mile from where he had started, the old grouse circled back to her hiding 'brood. In summer the grouse have abundant food, and in winter they are said to