Near the Amidon Meadows, I startled up two mother partridges and their
broods—the Ruffled Grouse (_Bonasa umbellus_), so prolific in these
woods. The old hens, fluttering and sputtering, limped away with their
wings drooping, and continued to warn their chickens to hide. The little
speckled fellows were soon lost sight of beneath the dead leaves at my
feet. They ceased to peep, and being of the colors of the leaves, I
hardly dared to advance for fear of stepping upon them. I sat down upon a
stone by a tree, and waited for the return of the wild hens. Before long,
I heard a rustling of leaves in the distance, and a clucking and calling
as of a tame hen summoning her chickens to feed upon a worm. The little
brown balls began—one, three, then a dozen, all at once to take their
heads from under the leaves, and they ran like streaks of lightning.
The mother partridge came so near, unawares, that I saw the color of her
eyes. Finally, discovering me, she in terror signalled again, much as the
tame hen does in real or fancied danger. The little grouse hid again,
some of them putting their heads under leaves, while the body was wholly
exposed.
On June 8th I visited Rattlesnake Swamp. Pink Moccasin-Flowers and late
blossoms of Painted Trillium were abundant under the hemlocks along the
slopes of the Domelet.
On June 10th I heard of a colony of albinos or white _Cypripedium acaule_
reported on the Rabbit Plain north of the Swamp of Oracles. In searching
unsuccessfully for it, I frightened up an old mother whippoorwill. She
feigned broken wings, attempting to distract my attention from her two
unprotected yellow eggs upon the leaves at my feet. Both partridges
and whippoorwills remain on their nests until almost stepped upon, as
a rule, believing that they are concealed because of their dead-leaf
ground-coloring. The old whippoorwill perched on some distant pine logs,
and moaned piteously while I looked at her eggs. Her great round, sad
eyes distressed me, while she gave forth a sighing sound. I broke down
a small tree over the nest and near the path as I left, hung my linen
collar on a tree, marking the line of entrance for another day.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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