26 GROUSE AND WILD TURKEYS OF UNITED STATES. 



contrasted black and reddish brown colors, set off by immaculate 

 white. 



The ruffed grouse is one of the most highly prized of American 

 game birds. It is known in New England as the ' partridge,' but in 

 the Southern States it is usually called ' pheasant.' It is distinctly 

 a bird of the woods, imparting the spirit of the wilderness to every 

 sylvan retreat that it inhabits. In Virginia and Maryland, near the 

 city of Washington, the species is, or was until recently, not uncom- 

 mon along the rocky palisades oi the Potomac and in deep gorges 

 lined with laurel thickets. In Essex County, N. J., it frequents the 

 crest of a wooded basaltic dike known as the Orange Mountains, 

 where the picturesque rocky woods with a good stand of deciduous 

 trees and an undergi'owth of blueberry, second-growth white oak, 

 wild grape and bittersweet vines, and beds of partridge berry 

 iMitcheUa repens) furnish a congenial home. That ruff'ed grouse 

 usually prefer deciduous to evergreen growths was particularly no- 

 ticed by the writer in 1892 and 1898 at Chocorua, X. H., a hamlet 

 between Lake Winnepesaukee and the AMiite Mountains. On his 

 tramps through heavy spruce forests remote from houses or clear- 

 ings he seldom came across grouse. He frequently met them, how- 

 ever, in woodland near farms or in clearings, and particularly along 

 wood roads. A favorite ground in August was the clearing of an 

 abandoned farm, 200 feet above Chocorua Lake, which lies at the foot 

 of Chocorua Mountain. The fields are separated from one another 

 by little trout brooks and have grown up to young spruces. Here in 

 bowlder-strewn pastures was an abundance of blackberries, blue- 

 berries, and grasshoppers, with old apple trees, birches, and poplars 

 for winter budding. On this old farm the writer never failed to flush 

 from three to eight grouse, and on several occasions he saw hen birds 

 with young. In a sandy spot of the road leading up to the house 

 the grouse had dusting wallows, which they used habitually. Dur- 

 ing October birds were often found in hemlock woods with an under- 

 growth of osmunda ferns or other vegetation. 



The ruffed grouse does not congregate in large coveys, like the 

 plumed quails or the prairie chicken, but is found in companies of 

 from two to eight, usually members of a single brood. It does not 

 spend the night on the ground, but perches on a tree. AAlien the 

 weather is very cold, however, it often plunges into the snow and 

 passes the night as snugly as an Eskimo in his igloo. 



The bobwhite whistles, the prairie chicken booms, and the blue 

 grouse hoots, but the ruffed grouse drums. The drumming is one of 

 the most interesting and attractive of all bird performances. It may 

 be heard at every season, but is at its best in spring. The cock, then 

 in full vigor, mounts his drumming log, droops his wings, raises his 

 fantail, and struts along the log with his crest and glossy black neck 



