162 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING. 
rifle nests of the eggs if they cannot secure the owners. 
The ruffed grouse being naturally solitary in habit, com- 
pared with other members of its family, is never found 
in large packs, but generally in broods or small coveys, 
and this is one reason why it is so difficult for a sports- 
man to make a big bag. 
It affords the best sport from September to November, 
as it becomes very wild after that time; and its flesh, 
owing to the fir and spruce buds on which the bird lives 
in winter, acquires a terebinthine taste. It is also a dif- 
ficult matter to find this grouse in winter, as it burrows 
a hole for itself in the snow in the more northern re- 
gions, by hurling itself into it from a certain height and 
striking it at an acute angle, and this hole it enlarges 
readily, often carrying it three or four yards into a snow- 
bank. It is so sharp of hearing that it can detect any 
unusual noise quite a distance away, for it has been 
proved that the ordinary tones of the human voice will 
flush it at a hundred yards, and that footsteps in the 
snow, which are scarcely audible to the traveller himself, 
will rouse it long before he is within shooting range. 
Being exceedingly shy and wary, it is ready to take alarm 
at any uncommon sight or sound, yet, where it is little 
hunted, a person may approach it to within a few paces, 
and instead of flying away in a hurry, it may merely 
march before him with a stately mien until it is flushed 
or grassed. 
Misses are frequent in shooting at it, owing to the sud- 
denness with which it rises, and the rapidity with which 
its sharp and curved wings beat the air. If it escapes it 
should be marked down promptly, for after being dis- 
turbed two or three times it lies quite still on the branch 
of some gigantic conifer, as if it thought there was no 
necessity for alarm, or hoped to escape observation in its 
foliaceous retreat. When the ordinary sportsman detects 
its robust form amid the foliage he does not pay much 
