THE PHEASANT. 195 



their own free will without making the least noise, but, on the 

 contrary, moving as lightly and silently as other birds. 



HABITS. 



The ruffed grouse, as before stated, is a very solitary bird, com- 

 monly found in small packs of four to eight, in sections of the 

 country where they are not too much hunted. If frequently dis- 

 turbed, it is rare to find more than a single pair together. They 

 delight in high, elevated districts, and love to roam about in dense 

 and secluded forests, watered by some large stream, upon the 

 precipitate banks of which they can repose in silence or wander 

 about in search of food. At a very early hour in the morning 

 they usually leave their secluded haunts and repair to the roads 

 that traverse the forests, where they busy themselves in picking 

 up gravel and scratching for grain in the droppings of horses. 

 Ruffed grouse are also particularly partial to most kinds of seeds, 

 berries, and grapes, and are always in good condition when they 

 can procure a supply of wild strawberries, dewberries, and whortle- 

 berries, and will not hesitate to roam long distances from their 

 retreats in search of these delicacies when in season. In the 

 spring, grouse feed on the tender buds of various trees, and are 

 perhaps less wild then than at any other period of the year, but 

 they are generally very poor and tasteless. In the winter season, 

 grouse, as well as partridges, are driven to great extremes for 

 food, and when the snow is very deep they depend almost entirely 

 for sustenance on the buds and leaves of the mountain-laurel, 

 (kalmia latifolia,) which food is said to poison their flesh so much 

 that it is dangerous to partake of them. 



We have already spoken of this circumstance when treating of 

 the partridge, and avail ourselves of this opportunity to say that 

 we are very sceptical on this head, and doubt very much whether a 

 fresh-killed pheasant could possibly poison any one partaking of it, 

 no matter how long the bird had been forced to feed upon portions of 

 the shrub. We are disposed to attribute these instances of poisoning 

 referred to by writers to other circumstances than the mere living 



