50 FEATHERED GAME 
nearer to the farms and orchards, and old apple 
trees in the woods or a deserted orchard hid- 
den away from travelled roads and near the 
forests are favorite spots and much frequented 
by them, as are likewise in their proper season 
the gullies where the ripe, red ‘‘thorn plums’’ 
are to be had for the picking. In berry and 
fruit time their food is almost entirely of this 
sort. In fact, from his readiness to eat almost 
any of Mother Nature’s cookery the Ruffed 
Grouse is in prime condition the year around. 
There is scarcely a game bird so satisfactory 
from all points of view as is our hero: a brave, 
strong-flying bird, a brainy and worthy an- 
tagonist from the sportsman’s standpoint, and 
in the estimation of the epicure a great deli- 
cacy. 
Although numerous attempts have been made 
to domesticate the Ruffed Grouse nearly all 
such have failed. The wild instincts of the free 
forest rover have usually triumphed over the 
easy but dull round of barnyard life even in 
chicks raised and cared for by the domestic 
hen, as they have almost invariably departed 
for the woods as soon as they were able to shift 
for themselves, or if unable to escape have 
