120 BIRDS OF ALABAMA 



General habits. — This grouse lives chiefly in dry, upland 

 woods, seeming to prefer rough hilly regions well covered with 

 timber and underbrush. On Sand Mountain, where a few 

 still remain, their favorite haunts are said to be the dense 

 laurel thickets in the deep rocky ravines, or "gulfs," as they 

 are called. 



When flushed the grouse rises with a loud and startling 

 whir of its wings and flies swiftly through the woods, often 

 alighting in a tree, however, before flying far. The species 

 is not of a gregarious nature, but the young of each brood 

 remain with the mother usually throughout the first winter, 

 the old males sometimes joining the coveys at that season. 



The drumming of the grouse is perhaps its most characteris- 

 tic habit. It is produced by the male bird and serves as a call 

 to his mate. Standing on a fallen log or a rock in the woods, 

 he beats the air vigorously with his wings, producing a sound 

 like the measured beating of a drum, beginning with slow 

 thumps and gradually increasing to a rapid roll which has 

 been compared by some to the rumble of a kettle-drum and by 

 others to distant thunder. 



Food habits. — Judd summarizes the food habits of the 

 ruffed grouse as follows: 



Analysis of the food showed 10.92 per cent of animal matter 

 and 89.08 per cent of vegetable matter. The animal food is 

 almost all insects. The vegetable food consists of seeds, 11.79 

 per cent; fruit, 28.32 per cent; leaves and buds, 48.11 per cent; 

 and miscellaneous vegetable matter, 0.86 per cent. The insect 

 food proper includes grasshoppers, 0.78 per cent; caterpillars, 

 1.15 per cent; beetles, 4.57 per cent; and miscellaneous insects, 

 3.86 per cent. Some miscellaneous matter, made up of spiders 

 and snails, is also eaten.* 



The fruits and berries eaten include rose hips, grapes, 

 partridge berries, wild cherries, blueberries, blackberries, 

 elderberries, mulberries, and the fruit of the hawthorn, bay- 

 berry, elder, black haw, dogwood, black gum, and Virginia 

 creeper.* 



•Judd, S. D., Biol. Surv. Bull. 24, pp. 25-38, 1905. 



