mostly. As I backed away I put my hand on another before seeing
him, and barely saved myself from hurting the little sly-boots,
who never stirred a muscle, not even when I took away the leaf
that covered him and put it back again softly.

Across the pathway was a thick scrub oak, under which I sat down
to watch. Ten long minutes passed, with nothing stirring, before
Mother Grouse came stealing back. She clucked once--"Careful!" it
seemed to say; and not a leaf stirred. She clucked again--did the
ground open? There they were, a dozen or more of them, springing
up from nowhere and scurrying with a thousand cheepings to tell
her all about it. So she gathered them all close about her, and
they vanished into the friendly shadows.

It was curious how jealously the old beech partridge watched over
the solitudes where these interesting little families roamed.
Though he seemed to care nothing about them, and was never seen
near one of his families, he suffered no other cock partridge to
come into his woods, or even to drum within hearing. In the
winter he shared the southern pasture peaceably with twenty other
grouse; and on certain days you might, by much creeping, surprise
a whole company of them on a sunny southern slope, strutting and
gliding, in and out and round about, with spread tails and
drooping wings, going through all the movements of a grouse
minuet. Once, in Indian summer, I crept up to twelve or fifteen
of the splendid birds, who were going through their curious
performance in a little opening among the berry bushes; and in
the midst of them-more vain, more resplendent, strutting more
proudly and clucking more arrogantly than any other--was the old
beech partridge.