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This is the Partridge of most Canadian sportsmen. Dwelling in the 

 woods amidst the underbrush, lying close, rising at the feet like a miniature 

 explosion, and flying with great speed through the dim forest, it tests the 

 alertness and marksmanship of any sportsman. The Ruffed Grouse 

 today is found only in the forest patches where cover and a considerable 

 area give it protection, and along the fringes of settlement where it still 

 exists precariously. 



Sud en weather changes are a serious menace to the Ruffed Grouse. 

 Wet, cold springs are deadly to the young and sleet destroys much potential 

 breeding stock in winter. In severe weather the Ruffed Grouse seeks 

 shelter beneath the snow or allows the snow to drift over it. Should cold 

 weather follow mild, as often happens, it is frozen under a crust which 

 it cannot break and so succumbs. 



The drumming of the Partridge is a familiar sound to all frequenters 

 of the woods. It is a series of dull reverberating throbs made by the rapidly 

 beating wings and has a peculiar all-pervading intensity which makes the 

 direction of its origin difficult of location. The beats begin slowly, gradu- 

 ally increasing in speed until at the end of perhaps five seconds they run 

 into each other and die away in a confused whir. The bird is usually 

 strutting along a fallen log when he pauses to drum. During the drum- 

 ming the bird displays all its ornaments — tail, crest, and ruffs — and though 

 standing upright and still, the wings are lost in a haze of speed. Two 

 sources for this drumming noise are suggested, one that the wings are 

 struck together over the back and the other that they are brought against 

 the sides to produce the beat. Either or neither may contribute to the 

 effect. The sound from the wings beating on the air as the bird rises to 

 wing is quite similar in quality if not in intensity or metre, and the mere 

 beating of the air seems sufficient to produce the effect. The action, of 

 course, is the call of the male to the female, as is the display of the Peacock 

 or the Turkey Gobbler. Spring is the proper season for drumming, but it 

 is indulged in more or less throughout the summer and with increased 

 frequency again in the autumn. In the Canada Ruffed Grouse Bonasa 

 umbellus togata, two well-defined colour phases appear which are not 

 governed by sex, season, or locality. In one form there is considerable 

 red; in an extreme example the ruffs are copper-coloured rather than black, 

 the tail is strikingly red, and there is more or less of the same colour else- 

 where. In the grey form, which is perhaps the most typical, the tail is 

 decidedly grey, there is less red elsewhere, and the ruffs are black with a 

 slight greenish sheen. All intermediate colorations are met with. 



Economic Status. As the species lives in woods nothing can be said 

 against it even if, apart from its sentimental and sporting importance, 

 little economic value can be claimed for it. 



Genus — Lagopus. Ptarmigan. 



General Description. The Ptarmigan are more northern Grouse, and notable for their 

 remarkable seasonal change in plumage. In winter, they are pure white; in summer, barred 

 with various shades of red, brown, and ochre, with the reddish usually prevailing. Their 

 feet are feathered to the ends of the toes and they perform definite and long migrations, 

 walking most of the way but occasionally taking flights from point to point or across such 

 wide waters as Hudson strait. As, even in midsummer, irregular patches of white remain in 

 their plumage, and as their feet are always feathered to the toes, there is no chance of 

 mistaking them. They are circumpolar in distribution and are found in both the Old 



