It's a grouse!

She certainly looked like a bird of prey with her legs all stretched out and 'talons' ready to grasp whatever it was on which she had her beady eye set. For all intents and purposes, she was a merlin. Yes, that was it! After hours of searching through my trusty bird book, I found that, though it was rare, merlins do actually winter-over all the way up to Southern Canada. I had dug her out of the fresh snowfall, wrapping her tenderly in a Russian muslin, then I brought her inside to thaw out a bit, so I could get some good pictures and spread her wings out a bit, to get a better look. I also wanted to do a pencil drawing of her. Took the pictures, studied and compared her to different hawks listed in the book, and finally came up with the afore-mentioned merlin. Larry came home for lunch, took one look at my merlin, and said, "It's a grouse!". I told him not to be silly, that surely he knows the difference between a hawk and a grouse, but he was adamant, pointing out the difference in the eye-set of the hunter and the hunted, the small chicken-sized head of the grouse, as compared to the majestic head of the hawk. The absence of long legs and huge talons of the hawk, (all the better to grasp you with, my dear!) surely must have been a clue to me that this was a humble grouse? I feel a little silly! Never-the-less, my sadness at her unfortunate demise is no less acute! May she rest in peace!