COMMON TO BOTH SEXES 261 



The following account by Brewster", concerning the habits of ruffed grouse in Maine, is in- 

 teresting : , 



"When I began to indulge in it [partridge shooting] about Lake Umbago in the early 

 70's the birds were exceedingly tame, even close to the settlements . . . My good dog 

 found and pointed them readily, but was evidently not a little puzzled to comprehend why 

 they should stand conspicuously upright in open ground, or on mossy logs, regarding him 

 with seeming indifference from a distance of only a few yards . . . For instead of ris- 

 ing promptly on wing as I wished, and expected them to do, they would . . . start off at 

 a slow walk with crests erect and perhaps also widespread tails, shaking their heads and 

 necks, and twitching their expanded ruffs at each deliberate step, and continuing increas- 

 ingly to utter their derisive and unseemly snickering . . . Even when I forced them to 

 take wing by running after them, they rarely went more than a few yards before alighting 

 in a tree, or dropping again to the ground over which they might continue to hasten, if 

 much alarmed, until it was useless to follow them farther." 

 In this connection, Elliot^'" suggests that this extreme lameness is a characteristic of the Can- 

 adian subspecies (B. u. togata). 



The Transition 



It is a far cry from the birds which prompted such accounts to the grouse with which most 

 present-day hunters are familiar. But even today, in remote forest areas, one often meets 

 with individuals which are comparatively unafraid. In the Adirondack* and other similarly 

 forested regions, it is not unusual to find birds, either on the ground or perched in trees, 

 which will allow approach to within ten yards or less. Similarly, one comes upon birds which 

 merely run out of the way instead of flushing. Deer hunters frequently secure such birds with 

 a rifle. It is also said that, in certain areas which have been set aside as sanctuaries, the birds 

 lend to lose their wariness. 



But, in localities where hunting pressure has been appreciable, the species has undergone 

 a process of education by which its members have acquired an instinct of caution. Beginning 

 with the first pursuit of the birds by man, this process is gradual and continuous. Records 

 do not tell us when the transition took place in most sections but, in his notes on the Lake 

 Umbagog region of Maine, Brewster" states that, in that locality, it "began to be noticeable 

 about 1889 or 1890", and that by 1900 the birds about the settlement had become "almost as 

 wary and otherwise sophisticated as those found in eastern Massachusetts". 



Yet hunting cannot be held entirely responsible for this change. There seems little doubt 

 but that the harassment of the birds by man's everyday activities is much greater in settled 

 districts. Likewise, a similar relationship with respect to predators seems to exist in discon- 

 nected coverts as compared with extensive forest areas. 



Present Caution 



In most coverts, today, these birds are thoroughly alert and wary. They usually rise well 

 ahead and make off rapidly in a more or less zig-zag course which soon puts a tree or other 

 obstruction between them and the observer. Again one will wait until it has almost been 

 passed by and then flush in the opposite direction. Occasionally, they become confused and 

 run directly at one before flushing. Like many other species of wildlife, they may often be 

 approached quite closely in an automobile but flush immediately if one tries to get out of the 

 car. After being flushed, they commonly alight in trees, particularly conifers. 



The female, while incubating or during the brood period, is, of course, an exception. When 

 on the nest, she sits very close, probably depending on her protective coloration and immo- 



