and the Maritime Provinces. 87 



alone, the wholesale dealers in game handle, every season, upwards of 

 twenty-five thousand pairs of ruffed grouse. A great many are also shot 

 in trees, by boys who hunt the birds with a small, barking, noisy dog ; the 

 grouse, on the near approach of the cur, fly into a tree, and if the dog 

 continues his barking they will sit gazing on him, almost stolidly, until the 

 last bird is shot, the hunter being careful to kill the lower ones first. 



The food of the ruffed grouse consists of various seeds, berries, 

 insects and the buds of trees. In hard-wood forests it feasts upon acorns 

 and beech nuts. I have often, in birds shot among the scrub-oaks of Cape 

 Cod, found the crops distended with acorns almost to bursting, and it has 

 been a wonder to me that such food could be digested. In the winter the 

 regimen is confined to the buds of trees and such dried berries as may be 

 obtained, and if nothing else offers, the leaves of the common laurel, 

 Kalmia latifolia, are eaten. These impart a very bitter, disagreeable 

 flavor to the flesh of the bird, and even render it unsafe for food. 



The habit of the grouse of diving into the deep snow in winter is well 

 known ; this is done as a protection against the severe cold which often 

 prevails in our northern forests, the fleecy covering affording a warm and 

 effectual place of refuge. 



In sections of the country that are pretty closely hunted the grouse is 

 so wild that a dog is generally of little value, for the reason that no matter 

 how well trained he may be, the noise he makes in travelling over the 

 fallen leaves startles the bird long before the sportsman draws near 

 enough to obtain a shot; but in more retired localities a good dog is 

 almost invaluable, and the birds will lie in their cover until the last one is 

 flushed and shot. 



While the ruffed grouse is generally believed to be tameless, and 

 consequently will not breed in captivity, there are several instances on rec- 

 ord that disprove this theory. My friend, H. A. Mansfield of Waltham, 

 Mass., had a pair of these birds which he kept in one of his poultry houses 

 many months. They were both full grown when they were captured, and 

 were, therefore, probably as untamable as any would be, much more so, in 

 fact, than would chick grouse raised in captivity. 



By an accident the cock bird escaped, but the female became even 

 tamer than a domestic fowl. She would permit Mr. Mansfield to handle 

 her and to stroke her back ; she would feed from his hand, in fact, acted 

 in every way as if she had been a tenant of his house all her life. When 

 spring arrived she scratched a nest in the corner of her pen and laid 

 eleven or twelve eggs. Of course, in the absence of a male bird, they were 

 sterile, but if she had not lost her mate she would, undoubtedly, have 

 hatched and reared a brood of young. I often used to visit his hennery 

 and watch the domesticated grouse. 



Now if a single pair can be tamed so that they will breed in confine- 



