RUFFED GROUSE 



The foliage in autumn is so thick in the 

 woods (and the ruffed grouse is rarely 

 found in the open) that hunting him is a very 

 difficult matter. In the places he frequents 

 the trees are usually close enough together to 

 make it practically a sheet of leaves during 

 much of the time he may be shot. And no 

 bird in the timber is harder to bring down 

 than this same ruffed grouse. His flight 

 is very swift, strong, and hard to stop as he 

 whizzes through the woods. He seems to be 

 able to get past the trees without the slightest 

 difficulty, and, like the woodcock, has the 

 happy faculty of putting a tree-trunk between 

 himself and the sportsman when opportunity 

 offers. The most difficult shot I know of, in 

 all the experience I have had in wing-shoot- 

 ing, is the shot at a ruffed grouse as he dives 

 from some tall tree to the cover below. It 

 is the hardest angle to gauge successfully that 

 I ever tackled. Ruffed grouse also make 

 very deceiving marks when they fly straight- 

 away, either up or down hill. If it is an up- 

 hill shot, the novice usually shoots too low, 

 and under the bird. If it is a down-hill shot, 

 he is apt to shoot behind the grouse. In a 

 223 



