UPLAND SHOOTING. 245 



The Ruffecl Grouse is a singularly handsome bird, whether 

 on the ground or on the wing ; looking, from the looseness and 

 downy habit of his feathers, considerably larger than he really 

 is. He rises with a very loud whirring of his wings — which 

 Mr. Audubon asserts so positively, that I must suppose so accu- 

 rate an observer to be surely correct, to be uttered merely at 

 moments of alarm and sudden trepidation, the bird when not 

 foi'ced to take wing, rising noiselessly — and gets under way 

 with extreme I'apidity. In general, this bird does not rise much 

 higher than a man's head, and then flies very straight, and very 

 swiftly, at an even elevation for several hundred yards ; after 

 which it will set both its wings, and sail dead before the wind 

 with immense velocity. To kill the Ruffed Grouse, when thus 

 skating down-wind, as it crosses you, having been flushed at a 

 distance, it is necessary to allow a considerable space for the 

 swiftness of its motion ; and I should fire not less than two feet 

 in front of one, at thirty-five or forty yards' distance. 



Going directly away from the gun, the Rutfed Grouse, like 

 the Quail, is an awkward bird to kill, from the fact, that they 

 both fly with the body so nearly level, that the rump and hai'd 

 bones of the back receive the shot ; and in this part of the body 

 they will have to be struck very heavily, before they will fall. 

 Tt is a good plan in this position to shoot a little low, as you are 

 far more apt to over than to under-shoot them. 



A cross shot, if not too far off, is easily killed ; as tlie bird 

 affords a fair mark, and will not carry o.T nearly so much shot 

 as the Quail, if struck well forward. 



Beginners are apt to shoot behind all their cross shots, and 

 perhaps especially so at this bird, his long tail and loose feathers 

 tending to deceive them. 



It is a matter of exceeding surprise to me, that this bird has 

 not been naturalized in Great Britain. Its extreme hardihood 

 would render its success certain ; and in every part of the coun- 

 try, but in the woodland and forest counties especially, Dorset 

 shire, Devonshire, parts of Essex, the New Forest, throughout 

 Wales, and in many districts of the North Country, and Scot- 



