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and remain with unconcern watching you, when, 

 from evident curiosity, they would stretch their 

 necks, and get into all kinds of grotesque attitudes, 

 and so little would they then regard the report of 

 a gun, that I have known pot-hunters kill quite a 

 number of the same family by always shooting the 

 lowest birds first. But when the ruffed grouse 

 becomes familiar with man, he is perfectly cognizant 

 of the danger of being in his proximity, for although 

 they lie close enough to shoot at, their color harmon- 

 izes so well with that of the ground that it is next to im- 

 possible to see them before they are on the wing, when 

 such is their impetuosity that the timid, nervous, pot- 

 tering shot, or the poacher with all his devices, would 

 find it next to impossible to kill a single specimen. 



In the undergrowth which springs up in that por- 

 tion of the country where the timber has been de- 

 stroyed by fire, in the States of Maine, New Hamp- 

 shire, and Yermont, I found them very abundant, it 

 being almost impossible to wander half a mile from 

 camp or settlement without flushing a covey. Now 

 the winters here are particularly long and rigorous, 

 far exceeding in severity those of Scotland ; still, the 

 bird's natural hardiness prevents his suffering. In 

 the Alleghanies and all the southern ranges of hills 



