RUFFED GROUSE 
By GEORGE BIRD GRINNELL 
The National Association of Audubon Sogieties 
Educational Leaflet No. 63 
I The Ruffed Grouse is found all over north-temperate North America, 
lin situations adapted to its habits. Except by sportsmen and real woods- 
lovers, it is seldom seen, for its life is spent chieliy in thick woods or in 
the depths of swamps, or along steep, forest-clad hillsides. In thickly 
1 settled districts, where much pursued, it is very wary, walking noiselessly 
away out of sight if it hears an approaching step, or 
crouching and lying concealed if the intruder comes Haunts 
I suddenly upon it ; or, when it believes itself discov- 
liered, rising from amid a cloud of dry leaves with a roar of wings whose 
thunder often startles even the seasoned woods-walker. 
I It has different names in different sections: “pheasant” in the South 
and in parts of the West, and “partridge” in New York and New England. 
The Ruffed Grouse is a hardy dweller of the North, and fears neither 
bitter cold nor deep snows. It loves the rough country. Elat grassy 
[plains have no charm for it, nor does it flourish where winters are mild 
I and spring breezes early and genial. Dark forests of pine and hemlock, 
I rock-strewn mountain-sides, and tangled, vinegrown alder swamps suit 
lit best — dim, silent places where only the shy wild things come. Neither 
'heat nor cold trouble it. If for weeks the ground is covered deep with 
jsnow, the grouse takes to the tops of the trees, feed- 
Sing on the buds of apple, poplar, birch, ironwood, and Food 
willow, and comfortably pulls through seasons of 
scarcity until the ground is again bare, and it can resume its customary 
diet of berries, green leaves, fallen nuts, and the fruit of the skunk- 
cabbage. 
In the summer, the birds feed on the leaves of growing plants, on 
insects, grasshoppers, and crickets ; and in autumn they depend largely 
;on fruit — berries of all sorts, wild grapes, various nuts, and fallen apples, 
at which they like to peck. 
One of the early spring signs that Ruffed Grouse are about is their 
drumming. It is a low, hollow murmur, like distant thunder, made by 
the male bird, while standing on a log, stone or stump, and rapidly 
beating his wings. Few subjects have been more dis- 
cussed by sportsmen — scientific and non-scientific — Drumming 
than this mysterious sound. How is it made and 
why? The complete answer to the first question was given only a few 
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