THE RUFFED GROUSE. 295 
by some mere chance, the least approachable of all wild 
birds. 
During the latter autumn, they eschew flat, bushy 
tracts, and even swamps with heavy thickets, their 
instinct probably telling them that in such covert they 
are liable to be taken napping. If, however, one have 
the fortune to find them in such tracts, he is likely to 
have sport over setters; and in no other sort of ground 
do I deem that possible, as the law now stands. Once, 
many years since, sporting in the heavy thorn-brakes 
around Pine Brook, in New Jersey, I found them with a 
friend in low underwood, and we had great sport, bag- 
ging eight brace of Ruffed Grouse over points, in addi- 
tion to some eighteen or twenty brace of Quail. 
In general, however, they frequent either open groves 
of tall, thrifty timber, with a carpet of wintergreens, 
cranberries and whortleberries, which constitute their 
favorite food; or the steep mountain-ledges, under the 
interlaced ‘branches of tall evergreen trees, among brakes 
of mountain rhododendron, or, as it is commonly called, 
though erroneously, laurel. In both these species of 
ground, all being clear below, the birds can hear and see 
the sportsman long before he can approach them, and 
take wing, for the most part, entirely out of gun-shot 
range. If, however, they are surprised unawares, they 
have a singular tact of dodging behind the first bush, 
or massive trunk, and flying off in a right line, keep- 
ing the obstacle directly between the sportsman and 
