84 With Rod and Gun in New England 



In many sections it is, in consequence of the great increase in the 

 numbers of sportsmen and the use of the breech-loading gun, becoming 

 yearly more and more scarce, while in other localities it is apparently as 

 plentiful as ever. I have found it in the greatest numbers in Nova Scotia, 

 in which province it is in many sections very abundant. In Cape Breton 

 it is astonishingly plentiful, one storekeeper at N. E. Margaree ship- 

 ping to market as many as from five hundred to a thousand pairs in a 

 season. In New Brunswick, Quebec, and in the New England States, it is 

 also a common, often abundant species. 



The ruffed grouse mate in April, sometimes earlier in the spring, and 

 the eggs, from eight to twelve in number, are laid usually in May. In 

 mating, the male bird makes his presence known to the female by "drum- 

 ming"; this habit is peculiar to this species, and is familiar to all persons 

 who have passed much of their time in the woods. 



The bird resorts to a fallen trunk of a tree, or a log, and, while strutt- 

 ing like the male turkey, beats his wings against his sides and the log with 

 considerable force. This produces a hollow, drumming noise that may be 

 heard to a considerable distance ; it commences very slowly, and, after a 

 few strokes, gradually increases in velocity, and terminates with a rolling 

 beat, very similar to the roll of a drum. 



I know not by what law of acoustics, but this drumming is peculiar in 

 sounding equally as loud at a considerable distance off, as within a few 

 rods. I have searched for the bird when I have heard the drumming, and, 

 while supposing him to be far away, have flushed him within fifty feet, and 

 vice versa. This habit of "drumming," however, is not confined to the 

 mating season, for I have heard the tattoo of the grouse in almost every 

 month of the year. On one occasion, as I was camping in the wilds of 

 Nova Scotia in December, when the weather was freezing cold, and the 

 ground was lightly covered with snow, I heard, early one morning, the roll- 

 ing beat of a grouse within ten rods of my tent, and so unsuspicious was 

 he that he kept on his drumming log for several hours, although my two 

 guides and I were noisily moving about the camp fire, chopping wood and 

 preparing breakfast. In fact, he even drew near and wandered about the 

 vicinity of the camp during the day, seemingly glad to have our compan- 

 ionship. Of course he was not shot, although he probably soon fell a victim 

 to one of the Great-horned owls which abounded in those forests. 



The ruffed grouse, after it has been hunted, is one of the wildest and 

 most difficult of approach of any of our game birds, but if it is unmolested 

 it is unsuspicious to a remarkable degree, and will often permit a person to 

 approach it as unconcernedly as would a domestic fowl, and I have time 

 and again, when hunting it, been obliged to almost kick it out of the bushes 

 before it would take flight. It is often seen in small flocks about the old 

 farms and pastures, and in Nova Scotia I have actually found them glean- 

 ing in buckwheat and rye fields, running about like so many chickens. 



