THE RUFFED GROUSE. 73 



Habits. — Capt. Bendire writes: "The Ruffed Grouse is partial 

 to an undulating and hilly country, one well-wooded and covered 

 with considerable undergrowth, interspersed here and there 

 with cultivated fields and meadow lands. In the southern 

 portions of its range, this bird is confined to the more moun- 

 tainous and Alpine regions, being seldom found far away from 

 such places, excepting in the late fall. 



"As winter approaches, the coveys leave their feeding- 

 grounds in the mountains, and repair to more congenial haunts 

 along the edges of the neighbouring valleys." 



Mr. Ernest E. Thompson, wTiting from Canada, says : 

 " Every fieldman must be acquainted with the simulation of 

 lameness, by which many birds decoy, or try to decoy, in- 

 truders from their nests. This is an invariable device of the 

 Ruffed Grouse, and I have no doubt that it is quite suc- 

 cessful with the natural foes of the bird ; indeed, it is often 

 so with man. A dog, as I have often seen, is certain to be 

 misled and duped, and there is little doubt that a Mink, 

 Skunk, Raccoon, Fox, Coyote, or Wolf, would fare no better. 

 Imagine the effect of the bird's tactics on a prowling Fox. 

 He has scented her as she sits, he is almost upon her, but she 

 has been watching him, and suddenly with a loud ' whir ' she 

 springs up and tumbles a few yards before him. The sudden- 

 ness and noise with which the bird appears, causes the Fox to 

 be totally carried away ; he forgets all his former experience, 

 he never thinks of the eggs, his mind is filled with the thought 

 of the wounded bird almost within his reach ; a few more 

 bounds and his meal will be secured. So he springs and 

 springs, and very nearly catches her, and in his excitement he 

 is led on and away, till finally the bird flies off, leaving him a 

 quarter of a mile or more from the nest. 



" If, instead of eggs, the Partridge has chicks, she does not 

 await the coming of the enemy, but runs to meet and mislead 

 him ere yet he is in the neighbourhood of the brood ; she 

 then leads him far away, and, returning by a circuitous route, 



