76 GAME BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA. 



a desperate conflict ensues, wherein, perchance, some 

 blood and many feathers are scattered upon the ground. 

 Some beHeve that the Ruffed Grouse is not polygamous, 

 but I think all the evidence we have seems to prove that 

 it is, and that the male has many wives if he c^n get 

 them. He pays no attention to the brood and is never 

 seen with them, nor with the hen during the period of 

 incubation, and I believe she hides her nest from him 

 as well as from all her other enemies. 



This bird inhabits dense thickets, swamps, clumps of 

 bushes, and similar situations affording concealment, and 

 prefers a hilly country or one strictly mountainous cov- 

 ered with timber, and is rarely seen in the open unless in 

 the vicinity of some leafy covert. It frequents the banks 

 of streams when overspread by bushes growing thickly 

 together, but also is found at times in rather open woods 

 with little or no undergrowth. When flushed this Grouse 

 rises with a tremendous whir, which can be heard for a 

 long distance and sounds not unhke a subdued roll of 

 thunder, and an inexperienced sportsman is apt to be 

 greatly flustrated by it and pretty sure to miss the bird, 

 no matter how fair a mark it presents. The flight is 

 extremely swift and powerful, and can be maintained 

 for a long way, and the bird exhibits wonderful dexterity 

 in threading the tangled brakes and by the unnumbered 

 trees and branches without touching any in his headlong 

 course. No little cunning is displayed also, that shows 

 the bird is wide-awake and anxious to provide for its 

 own safety, for as soon as it is on the wing it places some 

 tree or bush between it and its pursuer and keeps on, 

 as it flies, multiplying the obstacles for a successful shot. 

 It lies well to the dog, but when it flushes always darts 

 away from the side opposite to the sportsman, no matter 

 how advantageously he may think he has chosen his 



