140 The Wilderness Hunter 



They are the smallest of the grouse kind; the cock 

 is very handsome, with red eyebrows and dark, 

 glossy plumage. Moreover, he is as brave as he is 

 stupid and good-looking, and in the love season 

 becomes fairly crazy : at such time he will occasion 

 ally make a feint of attacking a man, strutting, 

 fluttering, and ruffling his feathers. The flesh of 

 the spruce grouse is not so good as that of his ruffed 

 and blue kinsfolk; and in winter, when he feeds on 

 spruce buds, it is ill tasting. I have never been able 

 to understand why closely allied species, under ap 

 parently the same surroundings, should differ so 

 radically in such important traits as wariness and 

 capacity to escape from foes. Yet the spruce grouse 

 in this respect shows the most marked contrast to the 

 blue grouse and the ruffed grouse. Of course all 

 three kinds vary greatly in their behavior according 

 as they do or do not live in localities where they 

 have been free from man s persecutions. The ruffed 

 grouse, a very wary game bird in all old-settled 

 regions, is often absurdly tame in the wilderness; 

 and under persecution even the spruce grouse gains 

 some little wisdom; but the latter never becomes as 

 wary as the former, and under no circumstances 

 is it possible to outwit the ruffed grouse by such 

 clumsy means as serve for his simple-minded broth 

 er. There is a similar difference between the sage 

 fowl and prairie fowl, in favor of the latter. It 

 is odd that the largest and the smallest kinds of 



