JULl' 31, 1893.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



49 



A BIT OF GROUSE HUNTER'S LORE. 



The game laws of New York allow raffed grouse shoot- 

 ing between the first day of September and the first day 

 of January, and although the young birds are pawerful 

 and quite knowing early in the spring, they are not much 

 hunted until the autumn leaves are falling and the cjol, 

 invigorating air allows the hunter to climb and tramp 

 over windfalls and rocks with comfort. During the 

 mouths of September and October the voung grouse have 

 comparatively short tails and small ruffs, so that they are 

 readily distinguished from the old birds, but by the latter 

 end of the season many of them are in perfect feather 

 except that they lack "the sheen, like that of p;j]ished 

 mahogany, which can be observed when the b ick of an 

 old bird is held in the proper light. The very large birds 

 with iridescent black ruffs are usually cocks, although it 

 is fi'equentlv difficult to find any marks of differentiation 

 in plumage which will distinguish them from hen^, and 

 hunters are very often mistaken as to the sex of any par- 

 ticular ruffed grou'e. The best test without dissection is 

 perhaps that afforded by spreading the tail to i^s fu'l ex- 

 tent. If the two external tail feathers can be brought 

 into a straight line with each other before the other 

 feathers of the tail separate from each other at the mar- 

 gins, the posse sor of that tail is in all probability a mile 

 bird. The feathers of the tail of the hen bird usually 

 separate from each other while the two f x'.ernal tail 



feathers are making an obtuse angle. It 

 for hunters to suppose that the birds 

 with brown or chocolate-colored ruffs 

 are females, but the calor of the ruff is 

 not a distinctive sex mark. 



The general coloration of ruff, d grouse 

 varies greatly in different localities, the 

 "partridges" from northern New Eng- 

 land, for instance, being almost invari- 

 ably' ashy gray in general tfffct, the 

 3olor of the tail being most pronounced. 

 In Pennsylvania the "pheasants" give an 

 impression of reddish brown coloring, 

 and the (ails of these birds are beanii- 

 fully rich in their reddish elements. In 

 New York State we find red birds and 

 gray birds in about equal numbers, acd 

 in one brood we find individuals repre- 

 Benting both extremes in such color 

 variation, just as i^ the case among the 

 (Screech owls. Ruffed grouse from Ore- 

 gon and from Texas are smaller and 

 much lighter than their Eastern relativt s. 

 Lite in the autumn the grouse develop a 

 row of narrow movable projecting scales 

 •along the sides of the toes for aids in 

 walking upon slippery snow and ice, and 

 these scutelJa', as Ihey are called, drop 

 oft' when the snow melts in the spring?. 

 The average weight of full grown East- 

 ern grouse is about twenty three ounce>', 

 but this weight varies two or three 

 ouncf 3 in accordance with the character 

 and abundarce of the fo:d supply. The 

 food in the autumn includes almost afl 

 berries that are accessible in any given 

 locality, but sumac and cedar berries aie 

 not usually eaten until winter. The 

 grouse eat beech nuts, acorns, chestnutr, 

 mushrooms, vetch pods and seeds, witch 

 hazel flowers and many succulent leave?. 

 They rarely touch wheat, maiz^, oats, 

 or barley, but of buckwheat they are 

 inordiaately fond, ard rarly in the sea- 

 son they strip off the flowers atd im- 

 mature grains, and continue to glean in 

 the buckwheat fields until the stubble is 

 deeply coveredwith snow. 



Hunters who are familiar with the 

 birds' habits beat the fences and deep furrowed 

 plowed ground all about the buckwheat fields that 

 are not too far removed from the woods, and find 

 there many birds that the sportsman in the brush 

 knows nothing about. Grouse are fond of tearing 

 the fleshy fruit of the skunk cabbage to pieces in 

 order to get at the seeds. They devour the fruit of all 

 of the species of wild grapes with avidity, and a covey 

 of grouse feeding among the tangled festoons of graps- 

 vines furnishes an inspiriting spectacle for one who 

 knows how to approach them with due cmtion. The 

 leaves of the bishop's cap {TiareUa cordifoUa and T. nuda) 

 rare as staple an article of diet with ruffed grouse as 

 bread and butter are for the Am^ricin citizen, and at all 

 seasons of the year fragments of the rough lobed leaves 

 are found in their crop:; even to the excludon of all 

 other articles of diet at times. Daring the wiater the 

 food consists principally of the buds of birch, poplar and 

 niaple trees, the leaves and berries of the wintergreen, 

 and the leaves of the bishop's cap: and as there are. very 

 few days during the winter when grouse cannot find an 

 abundance of some one of these forms of provender they 

 a,re almost always in good condition and ' as plump as 

 partridges." Kalmia leaves, which are sometimes eaten 

 by them in winter, are said on good authority to make 

 the flesh temp )rarily poisonous for man, and the fact 

 that the birds' food directly affects their flesh is exem- 

 plified in the delicious aromatic flavor of grouse that 

 have been feeding extensively upon birch buds and win- 

 tergreens, the grateful odor pervading the whole house 

 when such birds are so unfortunate as to get upon the 

 hot old kitchen stove just before dinner time. 



Ruffed grouse are as neat in their habits as such proud 

 and self I'especting birds ought to be, and they are very 

 fond of dusting in the wallow holes which they make in 

 the dry dust of crumbling logs in the woods. Vv^herever 

 the grouse live we are so certain to find their dusting 

 holes that the hunter wastes no time in the woods in 

 which the crumbliag logs have not been thus utilized by 

 the elite. During the day the birds spend most of their 

 tlrne in the brushy edges of the woods and in thebrambly 

 gii dies that extend out into the fieHs. and if there are 

 stumps near at hand in the open the grouse are fond of 

 running out about them and hiding there during the 

 middle of the day. We should naturally expect to find 

 the grouse on the sunniest hillsides when the weather is 

 > eiT cold, but they seem to be rather indifferent to the 

 eixiperature of their surroundings and the covey is almost 

 as likely to be found in the dreary north-facing ravine as 



company the birds keep up a constant talking to each 

 other, but in low voices as though fearful of being over- 

 heard. There are querulous notes from the spinsters and 

 solemn warnings from the dignified matrons when the 

 obstreperous young cocks challenge each other to a 

 wrestle, but the loudest vocal expression of the ruff d 

 grou?e is the clucking and squealing of a bird that has 

 lain long to the dog, when, running likea rabl)itout from 

 under the bru>h heap, he bustles on roaring wing away 

 through the swishing birch twigs and gives vent to his 

 emotions as he departs. Not all grouse squeal when thus 

 flushed, but they seldom tail to utter their loudest notes 

 when alighting on a tree overhead after being startled; 

 and when running for a hiding place they utter a hurried 

 "quit, qiiil, quit," that attracts the immediate attention 

 01 the dog. A molhfr grouse with young whines pre- 

 cisely like a dog when an enemy is near her brood. 



At night the grouse usually sleep upon the ground, and 

 indifferently in the woods or out in the open clearing if 

 the weather is dry. When it is rainy they sleep under 

 logs or recks or clumps of conifers, and frequently a 

 whole covey will be found at night scattered along under 

 an old tu nbledown fence in the woods. In winter when 

 the snow is deep they sleep either high up in coniferous 

 trees or under the snow in the open, so that just at even- 

 ing it is no uncommon sight to see a- covey of grouse 

 diving from wing, one after another, into the snow. If 

 the weather is very boisterous and the birds happen to 



is custoniary d ive down to a patch of wintergreens or clover or young 



MAJOR H. W. MERRILL. 



winter wheat they may i-e'.uaiu under the snow for several 

 days, burrowing for short distances and eating the green 

 leaves that are thus found. When a grouse is sitting 

 tiuietly at no great depth beneath the snow, a little hole 

 about' as large as one's finger is kept open by the bird's 

 breath, and the moisture congealing in large flakes upon 

 the frosty twigs or grass just over the hole will easily 

 locate the bird for a good observer : and the grouse in such 

 a position will allow one to approach quite near before he 

 leaves his comfortable room beneath tlie winds. 



The snow is sometimes too hard to serve for house pur- 

 poses, and then the birds may not alight upon the ground 

 for many days at a time, but fly from the hiding tops of 

 evergreens to the trees in which they bud at morjiing and 

 at evening. On the first warm day though, when the 

 sun has softened the snow, the boy who is following a 

 rabbit in the warm corner of the thicket will sud- 

 denly come upon the neatest, the trimmest and the most 

 inspiring bird track that is ever imprinted in any woods 

 on the pure white surface of this good earth of ours. 

 Three evenly spread toemarks in front and one short 

 straight mark behind. One footmark just as far in ad- 

 vance of the previous one as that is ahead of the one 

 before it, and all in definite order. Here the track leads 

 around a mossy boulder; there it goes along the whole 

 length of that half-sunken log and then straight out 

 through the sheep path among the hazels, No slipshod 

 stepper ever mide such marks. So clear, so well defined, 

 so mathematical a track is indicative only of such char- 

 acter as belongs to the noblest of all game birds, and per- 

 haps the boy will hear from him in a moment. No! 

 There is where he strutted; and there are the concentric 

 segments of circles made by the wing tips in the snow as 

 the old fellow flew, several minutes before danger ap- 

 proached. The danger was not so great, though, after 

 all, if I am familiar with that boy, for the bird that left 

 was game for a man of sharp wit and good judgment. 



Grouse are quite apt to keep each other company in 

 small coveys until spring, except when they are much 

 disturbed, but certain very old birds are quite content to 

 be solitary, and they are then quite difficult to approach 

 under ordinary circumstances. A wary old bird will slide 

 quietly out of the way as soon as he hears the sportsman 

 approaching him, and it is folly to attemjotto corner him, 

 but most of the grouse run and hide when there are 

 signs of danger, and a eood pointer or setter will follow 

 them easily to their places of concealment. A grouse will 

 not often remain before the pointing dog for more than 

 two or three minutes, and then he bursts forth with the 



of a coal cart upon the pavement, unnerving the hunter 

 who is not cool and steady in his aim. If the bird makes 

 a high flight at first he may bs expected to alight upon 

 the ground on descending. If he goes off low he will 

 probably slant upward at the end of his flight of a few 

 hundred yards and alight in a tree, barring accidents 

 which are liable to happen at the hands of gunners. 



Grouse are sometimes caught in snares that are set for 

 them on their feeding grounds, and hunters who cannot 

 kill a flying bird are not beneath chasing them with 

 spaniels which bark at the flushed birds and cause them 

 to stop, out of curiosity, and alight upon limbs overhead 

 in order to watch the antics of the dogs. The hunter can 

 then approach closely before attracting the attention of 

 the preoccupied grouse. It ia a very difficult matter to 

 see a grouse that has alighted in a large tree at the end 

 of a deliberate flight, as he usually sits bolt upright very 

 close to the trunk and moves not a feather, and unless 

 one 8C ins every foot of the tree systematically the bird 

 will probably not be discovered. Hunters often declare 

 that they have never been able to find a grouse in a tree, 

 just as we hear young women eomplain that they can- 

 not discover a four-leafed clover, and yet certain eyes are 

 very expert at detecting grouse in trees and four-leafed 

 clovers in the greensward ; much to the discomfiture of 

 untrained observers who were nob previously aware of 

 their lack of the requisite power. 



Wing-shooting is the most certain and the most satisfac- 

 tory way of getting a good bag of grouse, and for this 

 purpose well broken pointers or setters 

 are indispensable. Their keen noses en- 

 able them to detect the pcent of a bird 

 that has walked along the ground per- 

 haps half an hour previously, and they 

 follow the trail until the vicinity of the 

 game is reached. The bird being located 

 in his hiding-place, the dog stands 

 silently pointing until the hunter has 

 found a good place from which to shoot 

 when the grouse springs out on wing. 

 The most succet sf ul shots in the brush 

 are not often the men who make good 

 scores in open field shooting, for in the 

 latter sort of work one learns to take 

 sight along the barrel of his gun, and in 

 the woods such sighting is naturally in- 

 terfered with. The best grouse hunters 

 of my acquaintance shoot with both 

 eyes open and head erect, moving the 

 gun with the same intuition that guides 

 the batter in striking a ball after "sup- 

 pressing the image" of everything ex- 

 cept that of the object aimed at. The 

 image of branches and trees upon the 

 retina of the eye being suppressed at 

 will by the hunter, he is then conscious 

 only of the presence of the swiftly mov- 

 ing bird, and this object he follows as 

 accurately with the gun as he would 

 with his fineer if he were pointing out 

 the bird to a friend 



Very nice calculations are reqtdred in 

 order to hit the bird, however, for if the 

 gun were aimed directly at a crossing 

 grouse at the instant of firing, the charge 

 of shot would pass far to the rear of the 

 game. It is necessary to know ap- 

 proximately the length of time required 

 for combustion of the powder, the time 

 occupied by the charge of shot in reach- 

 ing any given point, and to judge cor- 

 rectly of the distance and direction of 

 the angles and curves of flight of the 

 bird. All of the factors excepting the 

 first vary with each fraction of a second 

 after the bird is on wing, so it would 

 seem almost impossible that any one 

 could be capable of making the calculations requisite 

 for striking a swiftepeeding grouse among the trees 

 were it not for the aid of that peculiar faculty of in- 

 stinctive co-ordination in action of brain and muscle. 

 A. strong bird is not easily killed even when fairly hit, and 

 it seems cruel to allow a woimded grouse to escape, but 

 men who have been struck with shot testify that the be- 

 numbing effect was such that they did not suffer any 

 real pain after the receipt of the injury. When we know 

 what a fox or hawk would do with a captured grouse it 

 makes the hunter's conscience easy. 



Dr, Robert T. iilORRTS. 



on the warm southern ex^ipisurts. When they are in startling roar that reminds one of the sud(ieu dunjping 



New Hampshire Deer and Grouse. 



Lancastur, N. H.— The prospects for game this fall 

 are very flattering. Deer are seen by some of the anglers 

 nearly every day, and people sitting on First Lake House 

 piazza have several times seen deer in the small open 

 space on the opposite side of the outlet, or narrows, above 

 the dam. not over twenty-five or thirty rods from the 

 house. Last Tuesday forenoon two ladies, guests at the 

 Lake House, were oirt by the roadside above the house 

 gathering wild flowers, when they saw a movement in 

 some bushes jus!^ in advance of them, and on looking 

 closely they spied a fawn not 10ft. from them. He had 

 evidently been curled up, sound asleep, and was not 

 aware of their approach until, as one of the ladies de- 

 clared, "she could have reached out and put her hand on 

 him." 



The law protecting the deer until Sept. 1 is being 

 strictly observed here, as has been the case for the past 

 few years, and each year when the first of September 

 comes is shown the wisdom of such a course, for nowhere 

 in the New England States can a deer be more easily 

 secured than in northern New Hampsbip during Septem- 

 ber or October, and it seems to us that the three Connec- 

 ticut lakes possess more advantages in that direction 

 than any other place, both in point of location and ex- 

 tent of territory. 



This year is "partridge year," too; last season scarcely 

 any were brought in; this season should furnish them 

 more abundantly, and favorable reports of young broods 

 are beginning to come in. Rob. 



The four full-page picture?. Young Mountain Sheep, American 

 Elk, Groun of ElK, and Forest and Stream's Grizzly, from the 

 "ii'ores/ and Stream Animal Series,'' handsomely printed on heavy 

 paper suitable for framing. The set of four (in tube) will b« sent 

 for ten cents (stamps will d.d),~Adv, 



