74 THE RUFFED GROUSE. 



linger in the woods close by for a week or a fortnight, as if fearful of 

 encountering the danger to be incurred in crossing the stream. This usually 

 happens in the beginning of October, when these birds are in the very best 

 order for the table, and at this period great numbers of them are killed. If 

 started from the ground, with or without the assistance of a dog, they 

 immediately alight on the nearest trees, and are easily shot. At length, 

 however, they resolve upon crossing the river; and this they accomplish 

 with so much ease, that I never saw any of them drop into the water. Not 

 more than two or three days elapse after they have reached the opposite 

 shore, when they at once proceed to the interior of the forests, in search of 

 places congenial to the general character of their habits. They now resume 

 their ordinary manner of living, which they continue until the approach of 

 spring, when the males, as if leading the way, proceed singly towards the 

 country from which they had retreated. The females follow in small parties 

 of three or four. In the month of October 1820, I observed a larger number 

 of Ruffed Grouse migrating thus from the States of Ohio, Illinois and Indiana 

 into Kentucky, than I had ever before remarked. During the short period 

 of their lingering along the north-west shore of the Ohio that season, a great 

 number of them were killed, and they were sold in the Cincinnati market 

 for so small a sum as 12^ cents each. 



Although these birds are particularly attached to the craggy sides of 

 mountains and hills, and the rocky borders of rivers and small streams, 

 thickly mantled with evergreen trees and small shrubs of the same nature, 

 they at times remove to low lands, and even enter the thickest cane-brakes, 

 where they also sometimes breed. I have shot some, and have heard them 

 drumming in such places, when there were no hills nearer than fifteen or 

 twenty miles. The lower parts of the State of Indiana and also those of 

 Kentucky, are amongst the places where I have discovered them in such 

 situations. 



The charming groves which here and there contrast so beautifully with 

 the general dull appearance of those parts of Kentucky and Tennessee, to 

 which the name of Barrens is given, are sought by the Ruffed Grouse. 

 These groves afford them abundant food and security. The gentle coolness 

 that prevails in them during the summer heat is agreeable and beneficial to 

 these birds, and the closeness of their undergrowth in other spots moderates 

 the cold blasts of winter. There this species breeds, and is at all times to 

 be found. Their drumming is to be heard issuing from these peaceful 

 retreats in early spring, at the same time that the booming of their relative, 

 the Pinnated Grouse, is recognised, as it reaches the ear of the traveller, from 

 the different parts of the more open country around. In such places as the 

 groves just mentioned, the species now before you, kind reader, is to be met 



