RUFFED GROUSE. 3 1 



This beautiful species of Grouse, known by the name of 

 Pheasajit in the Middle and Western States, and by that of 

 Partridge in New England, is found to inhabit the continent 

 from Hudson Bay and the parallel of 56° to Georgia, but 

 are most abundant in the Northern and Middle States, where 

 they often prefer the most elevated and wooded districts ; 

 and at the South they affect the mountainous ranges and 

 valleys which border upon or lie within the chains of the 

 Alleghanies. They are also prevalent in the Western States 

 as far as the line of the Territory of Mississippi ; and though 

 not found on the great Western plains, they reappear in the 

 forests of the Rocky Mountains and follow the Columbia 

 nearly to the Pacific. 



Although, properly speaking, sedentary, yet at the approach 

 of autumn, according to Audubon, they make, in common with 

 the following species, partial migrations by single families in 

 quest of a supply of food, and sometimes even cross the Ohio 

 in the course of their peregrinations. In the northern parts of 

 New England they appear also to be partially migratory at the 

 approach of winter, and leave the hills for lower and more 

 sheltered situations. So prompt, indeed, at times are their 

 movements that in November, 1831, in travelHng nearly to 

 the extremity of New Hampshire, not a single bird of the 

 species was now to be seen, as they had no doubt migrated 

 southward with the first threatening and untimely snow which 

 had fallen, being indeed so unusually abundant previously to 

 that period as to sell in the market of Boston as low as twelve 

 and a half cents apiece. Although elevated countries and 

 rocky situations thickly overgrown with bushes and dense ever- 

 greens by rivers and brooks are their chosen situations, yet at 

 times they frequent the lowlands and more open pine-forests 

 in the vicinity of our Northern towns and cities, and are even 

 occasionally content to seek a retreat far from their favorite 

 hills in the depth of a Kentucky cane-brake or the barrens of 

 New Jersey. They are somewhat abundant in the shrubby 

 oak-barrens of Kentucky and Tennessee, in which their food 

 abounds. This consists commonly in the spring and fall of 



