108 FIELD SHOOTING. 



abundance. Its habits are not nearly so gregarious as 

 those of the pinnated grouse, and no such multitudes 

 are to be found anywhere of ruffed grouse as may 

 often be met with of the former species in the 

 great prairie States. The ruffed grouse is but 

 seldom found in coveys, though sometimes a brood 

 of full-grown birds are found still together in 

 some lonely nook among the woodlands, or in a 

 solitary, sheltered spot in severe winter weather. 

 It is generally found singly or in pairs, and 

 loves sylvan solitudes, steep hillsides, wooded 

 dells, and the neighborhood of gullies and ravines. 

 The rougher and more broken the country, the 

 better the ruffed grouse like it, provided it is 

 well timbered with the trees and well covered 

 with the shrubs upon whose buds the birds 

 mainly feed. It is, however, often met with in 

 the deep, heavily-timbered bottom-lands of the 

 northwest part of Michigan. The buds of birch, 

 beech, and laurel (so-called) are the favorite food 

 of this bird in winter and spring. In summer 

 it no doubt feeds largely on berries and insects. 

 I do not think it ever visits the stubble-lands 

 to pick up wheat and buckwheat, though there 

 are some such bits of stubble in the very heart 

 of the woods in which it is constantly but thinly 



