RUFFED GROUSE 157 



at terrific speed, gaining momentum very quickly. Evidently it 

 depends largely on its feet for the initial spring from solid ground, 

 for it has difficulty in rising from soft snow, where it leaves the 

 imprint of its whole body and wings in its struggle to rise. But it 

 does not always make a noisy " getaway " ; I have often seen one flit 

 softly and silently up and over a stone wall, fence, or bush when it 

 was not frightened or thought it was not observed. Again, when 

 flying from a tree, it usually launches downward and flies away 

 almost silently. The roar of a rising grouse, often too far away to be 

 seen, is a common sound in regions where the birds are wild. Its 

 flight is strong, exceedingly swift, and usually quite direct, but not, 

 as a rule, prolonged for more than 150 or 200 yards, unless the bird is 

 crossing a river or an open space between tracts of woods. A common 

 habit is to fly low and straightaway along a woodland road or path, 

 but its usual method is to rise above entangling undergrowth and then 

 rly away through the trees, soon setting its wings and scaling down 

 into thick cover. I have always thought it particularly skillful in 

 dodging the branches of trees in its swift flight through thick woods, 

 but evidently it is not always successful in this, for Forbush (1927) 

 says : 



It does not, like the Wood Duck, so control its movements as to avoid the 

 twigs and branches of trees, but dashes through them. I have seen one in such 

 a case strike bodily against a limb and fall to the ground. This bird had been 

 tired at in a neighboring wood, and had crossed the open with tremendous 

 speed to another wood where it struck the limb. Aside from the shock the bird 

 was unhurt. Mr. Albert A. Cross of Huntington sent me a Ruffed Grouse that 

 in full flight had collided with the forked and broken end of a dead limb, 

 driving one of the prongs three inches into its breast and the other into its 

 vitals, and tearing the head and neck from the body. 



Forbush also speaks of a habit I have never noted: 



A hard-pressed bird has been known to go into shoal water, apparently for 

 concealment. Mr. L. Barber tells us that a grouse that was startled by his 

 dog alighted in the water. She was entirely under water except her head which 

 was covered by a projecting bush. Mr. W. L. Bishop writes that he killed a 

 Goshawk near a brook, and afterward discovered by traces on the snow that the 

 hawk had been pursuing a Ruffed Grouse. He found the frightened bird in the 

 brook entirely submerged with the exception of its head. Though the Ruffed 

 Grouse seems to drink mostly the dew and raindrops from the leaves, it is not 

 afraid of water, and if winged over water can swim fairly well. 



Grouse are much given to dusting themselves in soft, dusty places 

 in woods roads, in country highways or on old rotted logs or stumps. 

 They have favorite dusting places in which a few telltale feathers 

 may be found. 



Voice. — The vocal accomplishments of the ruffed grouse are quite 

 simple. The commonest note heard when the grouse is slightly 

 alarmed is a sharp quit-quit, usually given while walking on the 



