46 The Ruffed Grouse 



men first introduced them to guns. But in coverts frequented by 

 man, the grouse is well able to hold its own, given reasonable laws, 

 good cover, and not too great a hunting pressure. Its ability to 

 change direction in flight, to put trees between itself and the hunter, 

 to outwit the hunter by flushing behind him are some of the char- 

 acteristics that endear the grouse to millions of sportsmen and earn 

 it the title "king of the game birds." 



The four remaining grouse of our original brood, each in its own 

 covert, met and evaded many hunters during the remainder of the 

 open season. As the hunters' guns became a memory the season rap- 

 idly changed, and with it the coverts changed too. The leaves fell 

 from all but the evergreens, making the hardwood areas quite bare 

 of cover. The berries on most of the fruit-bearing trees and bushes 

 were dropping rapidly, and although much fruit remained avaflable, 

 the birds' diet included more and more of tender buds; insects were 

 practically gone now. 



Winter Comes. As the wind swung around to the northwest and the 

 skies assumed a leaden color, the temperature dropped below freez- 

 ing and snow began to fill the air. There had been a few snow flur- 

 ries earlier in tlie fall but this tiine it looked Iflce more serious busi- 

 ness. Winter had come. To many grouse this meant a change in their 

 habitual coverts, a move to the shelter of the coniferous woodland. 

 The hen bird returned to the hemlock ravine where she had spent 

 the previous winter. Several other grouse had settled there too, and 

 they banded together much of the time to form a covey. Gone was 

 the antagonism of the early fall; no longer did each bird look upon 

 the others as competitors. They settled down for the winter in an 

 area particularly adapted for winter use; and since such areas were 

 not over plentiful or too large, it was somewhat of a necessity for 

 them to get along together if many were to survive. 



Snow-Roosting. The birds roosted mainly in the thick hemlocks 

 but sometimes, when the nights were bitter cold and the wind 

 high, they would roost in the deep snow. If it were snowing at the 

 time, a bird might simply squat deeply into the snow and then al- 

 low the weather to cover it up. On other occasions they would dive 

 into a deep snowbank from the air. If the weather stayed bad, they 

 might remain in a snow roost for several days. Occasionally it is 

 reported that grouse are trapped in snow roosts by a quick freezing 



