Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 February 1904 — GROUSE ARE CLEVER. [ARTICLE]

GROUSE ARE CLEVER.

fktr Kvade the Heater hy Trleka That Display Intelligence.

The grouse has a hundred tricks of defense, says Outing. It will life still until the hunter is within a yard of It, then soar straight upward in bis front, towering like a woodcock; again. It will rise forty yards away, and the sound of lta wings is his only notice of its presence. It will cower upon a branch under which be passes, and his cap will not be more than a foot below it as lie goes, and, though It has Seen him approaching, it will remain quiescent in frightful fear until his back is turned. It will rush then, and when he has slewed himself hurriedly around he will catch only a glimpse of a brown, broad wing far away. Wounded and falling in the open, it will be found—if it is found at all—with the telltale speckles of its breast against the trunk of some brown tree against which its feathers are indistinguishable, and the black ruff-about the neck of the male will be laid against the darkest spot of the hark. Often It will double like a fox; often as man draws near it will spring noiselessly into some spruce and hide until he passes, dropping then to the ground and continuing its feeding; often, too, it will decline to take wing, though unhurt, and will run fast for half a mile—so fast that the most expert woodsman will be unable to keep pace with it. This it will only do on leafy ground and never when snow would betray its tracks.