THE RUFFED GROUSE. 38Y 
DESCRIPTION. 
Tail of eighteen feathers, reddish-brown or gray above; the back with cordate 
spots of lighter; beneath whitish, transversely barred with dull-brown; tail tipped 
with gray, and with a subterminal bar of black; broad feathers of the ruff black. 
Tail lengthened, nearly as long as the wing; very broad, and moderately 
rounded; the feathers very broad and truncate, the tip slightly convex, eighteen in 
number; upper half of tarsus only feathered; bare behind and below, with two 
rows of hexagonal scutellie anteriorly; a naked space on the side of the neck, con- 
cealed by’an overhanging tuft of broad, truncate feathers; there are no pectinated 
processes above the eye, where the skin instead is clothed with short feathers. 
Length, eighteen inches; wing, seven and twenty one-hundredths; tail, seven 
inches. ; 
This beautiful and well-known bird, commonly, but very 
improperly, called Partridge, is a general resident in all the 
New-England States throughout the year. In the most 
retired localities, and in the near vicinage of towns, it is 
found almost equally abundant; and its habits and charac- 
teristics are the same in all localities, except that in thickly 
settled districts, in consequence of its being more pursued 
by sportsmen, it is much wilder and more difficult of ap- 
proach than in less settled neighborhoods. So tame and 
unsuspicious are these birds in the deep forests, that I have 
had considerable difficulty at times in flushing them. When 
I have approached them, instead of flying off, as they should, 
they stood watching me like so many barn-yard fowls; and 
when I walked up to within a few feet of them, to get them 
a-wing, — for no true sportsman will ever kill a game bird 
unless it is flying, —they only retreated slowly into a thicket 
of undergrowth, and remained there until actually forced to 
take flight. 
About the first of May, sometimes a little earlier, more 
often later, the female withdraws from the society of the 
male, and repairs to a retired spot in the woods, where, 
usually beneath a thicket of evergreen, or a bunch of brush, 
or perhaps a fallen log or rock, she scrapes together a few 
leaves into a loose nest, and deposits from eight to twelve 
eggs. These are usually of a yellowish-white, sometimes 
a darker color, sometimes nearly pure-white. They are 
