66 LIFE HISTORIES OF EOKTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



"The males never congregate during the breeding season or after, and I 

 never but once saw two adult males within one-fourth of a mile of each other 

 between April and September. I consider that the drumming is not a call to 

 the female, as they drum nearly or quite as much in the fall as in the spring, 

 and I have heard them drumming every month in the year. I have never 

 seen the least evidence that the Ruffed Grouse is polygamous." 



Besides the various foods mentioned in the previous article, the Canadian 

 Ruffed Grouse, according to Mr. Hardy, feeds not alone on the poplar buds, 

 but also on the hard old leaves. He writes me: "I have killed one with its 

 crop filled with such leaves on the 20th of August, and they eat them contin- 

 uously, until the last have fallen in late October. They do this when other 

 food is abundant. Buds of willow, yellow and white birch, hophornbeam, 

 thorn plums, rosehips, leaves of tame sorrel, of the rock polypod, fungus from 

 birch trees, the seeds of touch-me-nots (Impatiens fulva), wild raisins, and high- 

 land cranberries (both species of Viburnum) form also a part of their bill of 

 fare. They seem to be especially fond of beechnuts. I have a record of 

 finding seventy-six in one bird's crop and over sixty in another." 



Personally, I have met with this bird quite frequently in various portions 

 of Oregon and Washington, as well as in the north of Idaho, where it was 

 especially abundant and exceedingly tame and unsuspicious. On the trail 

 from Fort Lapwai, Idaho, to Fort Colville, Washington, in 1869 to 1871, I 

 have seen, more than once, over fifty of these birds in a day's travel, without 

 looking for them. Coveys of from eight to twelve were frequently met 

 lying in any dusty place on the trail, taking sun baths and scratching around 

 like chickens. When closely approached they would hop up or fly into the 

 nearest tree or bush and remain there perfectly unconcerned, and I have seen 

 them knocked down with sticks and stones. 



On one of these trips, in the beginning of June, 1870, I saw a Ruffed 

 Grouse, with a brood of young, attack an Indian dog that had attached 

 itself to our party, and drive him off We were riding through a little aspen 

 thicket, some 10 miles north of the Spokane River, when the dog suddenly 

 ran on the bird with her brood. She certainly looked the very incarnation 

 of fury, every feather on her body was standing on end, as she fairly flew 

 at the dog, perfectly reckless of consequences; but was so nimble and quick 

 in her movements that she escaped all harm, and actually compelled the 

 dog, by various peckings on the legs and head, to turn tail and run. At 

 the same time she uttered a sharp, hissing sound of defiance rather than 

 fear, which reminded me more of the hissing and spitting of an angry cat 

 than anything emanating from a bird. 



The nesting habits of the Canadian Ruffed Grouse, as well as the eggs, 

 are in every respect similar to those of typical Bonasa umbellus. Mr. J. W. 

 Banks, of St. Johns, New Brunswick, writes me: "Here with us a very com- 

 mon nesting place is what is called a fallow. This is a piece of woods 

 chopped down in the fall, to be burned when sufficiently day, usually in the 



