(]Q LIFE HISTORIES OF JSOKTU AMEiiiCAN BIRDS. 



"Tlie males never congregate during the breeding season or after, and I 

 never but once saw two adult males within one-fourtli of a mile of each otlier 

 between A})ril and September. I consider that the drumming is not a call t(_) 

 the iemale, as they di'um nearly or quite as much in the fall as in the spring, 

 and I have heard them drunnning every month in the year. I have never 

 seen the least evidence that the Ruffed Grouse is p(dygamous." 



Besides the various foods mentioned in the prcAdous article, the Canadian 

 Ruffed Grouse, according to Mr. Hardy, feeds not alone on the pojjlar buds, 

 but also on the hard old leaves. He writes me: " I have killed one with its 

 crop filled with such leaves on the 2()th of August, and they eat them contin- 

 uously, until the last have ffilleu in late October. They do this when other 

 food is abundant. Buds of willow, yellow and white birch, hophornbeam, 

 thorn plums, rosehips, leaves of tame sorrel, of the rock polypod, fungus from 

 birch trees, the seeds of touch-me-nots {Imputlens fiUra), wild raisins, and high- 

 laud cranberries (both species of Vihi(nnnit) form also a part of their bill of 

 fare. They seem to be especially fond of beechnuts. I have a record of 

 finding seventy-six in one bird's crop and over sixty in another." 



Personally, I have met with this bird quite frequently in various portions 

 of Oregon and Washington, as well as in tlie north of Idaho, where it wiis 

 especially abundant and exceedingly tame and unsuspicious. On the trail 

 from Fort Lapwai, Idaho, to Fort Colville, Washington, in 1869 to 1H71, I 

 have seen, more tlian once, over fifty of these birds in a day's travel, without 

 l()oking for them. Coveys of from eight to twelve were frequently met 

 lying in any dusty place on the trail, taking sun l)aths and scratching around 

 like chickens. Wlien closely approached the}' would hop up or fly into the 

 nearest tree or bush and remain there perfectly luiconcerned, and I liave seen 

 them knocked down with sticks and stones. 



On one of these trips, in the beginning of June, 1870, I saw a Ruffed 

 Grouse, with a brood of young, attack an Indian dog that had attached 

 itself to our party, and drive him off. We were riding through a little aspen 

 thicket, some 10 miles north of the Spokane River, when the dog suddenly 

 ran on the bird wijh her brood. She certainly looked the very incarnation 

 of fury, every feather on her body was standing on end, as she faiily flew 

 at the dog, perfectly reckless of consequences; Imt was so nimble and quick 

 in her movements that she escaped all harm, and actu"^lly compelled the 

 dog, by various peckings on the legs and head, to turn tail and run. At 

 the same time she uttered a sharp, hissing sound of defiance rather than 

 fear, which reminded me mt)re of tlie hissing and spitting- of an angry cat 

 than anything emanating from a bird. 



Tlie nesting luibits of the Canadian Ruffeil Grouse, as well as the eggs, 

 are in everv respect sinnlar to those of typical Boimsa umhdlns. Mr. J. W. 

 Banks, of St. Johns, New Brunswick, writes me: "Here with us a very com- 

 mon nesting place is Avhat is called a fallow. Tins is a piece of woods 

 chopped down in the fall, to be bui-ned when sufficiently dry, usually in the 



