372 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 
ets, preferring the roughest parts of a hilly or moun- 
tainous country, and of these it many times selects the 
densest recesses, or the timber of seamy and rocky 
hillsides, or where ledges, fallen tree-trunks and tree- 
tops in the woods, secluded from man, guard against 
intrusion, and even the timbered swamps are not ob- 
noxious to it. 
For man it has the most uncompromising aversion. 
It selects its home in the places least frequented by 
him, though once the home is determined on it holds 
to it with dauntless persistency, let the gunner disturb 
it as often as he may. 
In choosing its habitat it prefers that it be near a 
supply of good water and an abundance of good food, 
for it is a good feeder. Whortleberries, blackberries, 
beechnuts, acorns, chestnuts, partridge berries and buds 
are readily accepted as food in their proper season. 
The bud of the laurel is said to render the flesh 
poisonous for food purposes, though the belief seems 
to rest more on tradition than on any direct evidence. 
Unlike the quail, which prefers to make its home near 
the homes of man, and the prairie chicken, which sticks 
closely to the grain field, the ruffed grouse is ever in- 
tent on choosing its home and haunts distinctly apart 
from those of man. In the East it is called “par- 
tridge’”’; in sections of Pennsylvania and the South, 
“pheasant.” 
In the breeding season, when it has been free from 
pursuit and harassing alarms, it sometimes strays a 
short distance from cover into the adjacent fields, 
