THE RUFFED-GROUSE 91 



preaches and shoots them down. I would not have 

 any friendship for a man who would shoot one of these 

 magnificent birds sitting and gazing at him from the 

 branch of a tree. 



Forester says that "the constantly repeated tale that 

 the ruffed-grouse when it alights in trees in com- 

 panies, will allow the whole flock to be shot down one 

 by one without stirring, provided the shooter takes the 

 precaution of shooting the one which sits the lowest on 

 the tree first, is as fabulous as it is ridiculous." I have 

 been informed, however, by reliable persons that this 

 not only can be, but has been, done repeatedly. The 

 Canada-grouse have been shot in the same way, as we 

 shall see later. I have seen the blue- or dusky-grouse 

 equally tame in the Rocky Mountains, but, of course, 

 never tried to kill all on a tree. I have repeatedly 

 found the ruffed-grouse in cultivated fields where they 

 had gone in search of food, but only in such fields as 

 were adjacent to the woods, into which they went on 

 whirring wings at the first alarm. 



Ruffed-grouse are always found in wild, romantic, 

 and picturesque places. They are especially fond of 

 craggy mountain sides and deep and impenetrable 

 swamps. A small woodland will not hold them long 

 unless it be one of aeeries of woods with intervening 

 fields. Early in the season all the birds of a brood will 

 be found together, but I believe there are never more 

 than one brood associated. In this they differ from 

 the grouse of the open country, which pack, as we 

 . have observed, into large flocks as the season ad- 

 vances. 



There is much diversity as to the field merits of this 



