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THE RUFFED GROUSE. 367 
' Under different circumstances the female uses different 
artifices to preserve her young. If she sees a person ap- 
proaching, and cannot lead her young brood away before 
she suffers the intruder to come too near, she utters a low 
clucking note, and in an instant every chick is hid, and will 
remain so until called by her; while she, in the mean time, 
walks slowly away, keeping her eye fixed on the intruder, 
and occasionally stopping and standing on one leg. If you 
still advance, she walks as before, appearing as though there 
was nothing very interesting about the place, until she gets 
behind a tree or bush, when the whirring of her wings tells 
that she has flown away. Many a person has been led away 
by this manceuvre, while she returns by a circuitous route to 
the rear, and alighting near her young, calls them to her. 
When suddenly alarmed, the brood as before hide under the 
leaves and rubbish, while she feigns lameness, and if not fol- 
lowed, usually returns bristling her feathers and fluttering 
And if your foot is presented to her, she will strike 
at it in the same manner as a domestic hen when defending 
her chickens. The young follow their mother from the day 
they are hatched until they are fully grown, and even until 
the following spring. 
So ardently is this beautiful game-bird sought for, that 
many are destroyed every year, not only with the gun, 
by every contrivance of snare and trap; and by the last 
two methods whole broods are taken before they have 
reached maturity. If such indiscriminate slaughter should 
Continue for a few years to come as in times past, we shall 
ve cause to regret that effective measures were not taken 
for the preservation of this noble bird. wa 
The Ruffed Grouse is born to be free, and if reduced to 
: » Will die rather than submit to such degradation. He 
ns to be a domestic bird, and chooses the wild forests; 
Where, with a proud step and erect head, he walks with that - 
haughty bearing which indicates his free spirit. 
