The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-01-17
A Natural History Study
By Ernest Harold Baynes
BIRDS IN COLD WEATHER

are particularly daring, and will come al
most UP to the back door for corn or bread,
and even the birds which are foraging for
themselves in the fields and woods will al
low one to approach closer than at other
times, rather than abandon their feeding
grounds. A flock of fifty goldfnches which
i came upon last week they were busy
among the seed-bearing tops of some tall
weeds sticking out above the snow, allowed
me to walk almost among them. so intent
were they on the important business at
hand. A flock of four pine grosbeaks, too,
feeding on berries, permitted me TO come
within six feet. and even then showed little
fear.
But the birds which occupied most of my
attention last week were the ruffed grouse.
These hardy game birds do not seem to
mind the severity of the weather, their
snug, tight-fitting plumage protects them
from the cold, and the horny fringes which
grow on their toes at this season enable
them to walk with reasonable comfort in
the snow when it is not too deep. 1t is in
tereSting to follow the grouse trails, lead
ing in and out of the underground. II the
snow is shallow the footprints remind one
of those made by bantam hen, but If 1t is
deeper the bird sinks in and its body makes
furrow as it walks along, while only a
general idea of the shape and position of
the individual footprints is to be obtained
from the trail. But it may always be dis
tinguished from the trail of any quadruped
by its termination, if in no other way. No
matter how far grouse may walk ii Will
take wing at last, and usually the observer
may on the snow the imprints of the
wing feathers made at the first downward
stroke of the wings. Moreover, at the end
of the trail there is usually a rounded de-
preston made by the body of the grouse as
1T stoops down before the upward spring.
But even more than in the trails was l in
terested in the sleeping quarters of the
grouse during the very cold weather. AS a
rule these places may be located by the
presence in the otherwise unbroken snow
of two holes a foot or more apart, one
made by the bird he plunged downward
from the wing and the other as he sprang
upward and broke through the snow from
beneath. Between the two holes there is
tunnel, and it is here that a grouse has
passed the night. He does not always
plunge in from the wing, for L found a few
places where he had walked in through the
side of a drift One evening / lay in a
snow bank in a pine wood from shutdown
until dark in the hope of seeing a grouse
drop into the snow, but l did not see one
although l think / heard several Next
morning / went back to the wood, and
while examining the snow / found a single
hole, indicating that a grouse had entered
but had not yet come out. | approached
cautiously and had almost reached the de-
preston, when with a mighty whirr great
brown grouse burst through the level sur
face of the snow in front of me and sped
away through the pine woods, clevery
lodging the tree trunks And looking down
saw two holes, nearly two feet apart and
on either side of the farther one was the
clear impression Of a grouse's wing.