154 AMERICAN" GAME BIRD SHOOTING. 



Its liome is not a desert, however, but a sylvan re- 

 treat, where flowers bloom and exhale sweet fragrance, 

 and song birds warble the whole day long, though it 

 may also resound with the whistle of the timid deer, the 

 groAvl of tlie bear, or the liigh, sharp scream of the wild- 

 cat and cougar. 



Where food is plentiful all the year round, an adult 

 male weighs from one and a half to nearly two pounds. 

 During the berry season its flesh is white, succulent, and 

 of a delicate flavor, but to preserve this flavor when 

 cooked it ought to be roasted whole, not split and 

 broiled, as it usually is in hotels and restaurants. Few 

 birds on the continent are more interesting to the natur- 

 alist or lover of field sports than the ruffed grouse Avhen 

 it thunders forth its erotic lay early in the spring, amid 

 the forest depths. It looks, when standing on a bough, 

 like a knot of the tree, on account of the harmonious 

 blending of its rufous or ashy plumage with the hue of 

 the surrounding foliage. During the mating season the 

 male presents a stately appearance, especially when he is 

 parading up and down a log or serenading the fair sex. 

 His ruff is then rigidly erected, the tail is spread into 

 the form of a fan, and the wings, which are stiffened to 

 the utmost limit, are drooped to the ground. His mien 

 is proud and energetic, yet graceful, and his bearing is 

 that of a gallant which is conscious of his own import- 

 ance. After strutting up and down the log with all the 

 pomposity of his family, and clucking his satisfaction at 

 his own imposing form, he stops suddenly; then, after a 

 brief jiause, commences flapping his wings so vigorously 

 that they produce a booming sound, which reverberates 

 throughout the forest for a distance of half a mile or 

 more, according to the state of the weather, and the 

 echoing character of the surrounding region. 



After drumming for several minutes, he stops abrupt- 

 ly, then renews it, with apparently greater force, and 



