150 RUFFED GROUSE. 



scattering in every direction, and then are so still that 

 they can scarcely be seen even when the eye rests on 

 them. If forced to take wing, they rise with a loud 

 whirr that is startling to one who does not know what 

 to expect. When all danger is past, soft, sweet call- 

 notes bring them together again. 



The nest is on the ground in grassy fields, and the 

 eggs (usually 10 to 15, although Mr. Ridgway once 

 found 26) are pure -white. As soon as the downy 

 young are out of the shell, they run about and are 

 marvelously quick. Quail are extremely useful to 

 agriculturists, eating potato-bugs and the moths that 

 produce cut-worms. 



Ruffed Grouse: Bonasa umbellus. 



Length about 18 inches. 



General color reddish-brown, variegated with black, buff, 

 gray, and white. 



Under parts whitish, barred with brown. 



A broad black band at the end of the tail which is tipped 

 with gray. 



A large loose tuft of glossy black feathers on each side of 

 the neck, like a ruff. 



Resident all the year, but very uncommon. 



Mr. Rowland Robinson writes: "The wild turkey 

 is passing away, and it is a question of but few years 

 when he shall have departed forever. In some locali- 

 ties the next noblest of our game birds, the ruffed 

 grouse, has become almost a thing of the past, and in 

 some years is everywhere so scarce that there are sad 

 forebodings of his complete disappearance from -the 

 rugged hills of which he seems as much a belonging 

 as the lichened rocks, the arbutus and the windswept 

 evergreens." 



