THE OREGON SPORTSMAN 



Ruffed grouse have a characteristic way of hatching. The 

 chicks pip the shell and make a good-sized hole through which 

 to breathe. Then they rest for from 24 to 36 hours, and then, 

 .as though at signal, all begin to break out a circle around the 

 large end of the egg and all step out, almost dry, at practically 

 'the same time. Having taken all but two clutches of eggs from 

 the wild, incubation time unknown, and having been unavoid- 

 ably away from home when eggs laid in confinement hatched, 

 I am not quite certain as to the incubation period of the ruffed 

 grouse. I think the birds break out of the shell on the twenty- 

 fifth day. The fact of their long rest after pipping brings them 

 out hungry and they begin actively hunting and catching in- 

 sects the first morning. I am inclined, however, to feed only 

 insects, grit and chickweed the first day, and insects a little 

 sparingly. Plant lice, as with the bobwhite, constitute the best 

 food for the first day. 



In great contrast to the bobwhite the ruffed grouse is 

 essentially a solitary bird. True, the mother and young form 

 a covey during the first season, but I have never seen a cock pay 

 the slightest attention to his own "wife and children." In- 

 stances are on record of ruffed grouse showing some social in- 

 stinct, even to apparently being attached to a man and follow- 

 ing him about. I never saw a sign of any intelligence of this 

 kind in my birds reared in confinement or in those captured from 

 the wild. It ought to be sought for and, if found, preserved, as 

 a rare exhibition of an instinct which might be put to good ac- 

 count in developing a race of semi-domesticated grouse. Any 

 grouse in my cages would hop upon my knee and feed from my 

 hand, but apparently show no more appreciation than it I nad 

 been a stump and the berries had been on the bush. In harmony 

 with this solitary habit, and again in contrast to the bobwhites, 

 ruffed grouse are almost voiceless and characteristically silent 

 birds. The chicks have a plaintive cry or squeak which they use 

 for the first weeks when lost, or as a flock-call. As they grow 

 older, they become mute, except for a little hissing of the cocks 



Pag-e six 



