RUFFED GROUSE. 27 
tufts erect. He begins heating his wings slowly; then faster and 
faster, till their rapid reverberation beeonies a tattoo, rolling out a 
challenge to rival cocks and a love call to the hens. 
Nesting takes place in the latter part of Aj)ril, or more often early 
in May. In a makeshift nest scratched in a hollow are laid ten or a 
dozen or even more creamy white or butty eggs, usually unspotted, 
but sometimes with fine specks of brown. The young look like little 
brown leghorn chicks. Only one brood is raised in a season. On 
July 4. in New Jersey, the writer has seen young birds as large as 
woodcock. The cock grouse assist neither in incubation nor in rear- 
ing the young, but after the eggs are laid assemble in small companies 
by themselves. The hen is am})ly able to care for her little family, 
and Mr. Sandys tells how a mother forced to headlong and unvalorous 
flight a young pointer that had designs on her brood." The notes 
of the grouse during the breeding season are interesting. AVhen the 
brood is surprised the hen utters several clucking sounds, one of 
which may be described as ' quit, quit, quit.' Mr. Sandys, in writing 
of the call of the parent birds to scattered chicks, says : '' 
In about ten minutes there sounded a low musical chirruping, very like the 
sound emitted by a red stjuirrel between the coughing, sputtering notes. 
Major Bendire, quoting Doctor Ralph, says that a disturbed mother 
grouse utters a sound like the whine of a young puppy. ^ 
Of the habits and general attractiveness of the ruffed grouse Major 
Bendire writes as follow\s:'^ 
The Kuffod (irouse is naturally tame and unsuspicious, and let it once realize 
that it is i)r(;tected. it becomes almost as much at home in the innnediate vicinity 
of man as a domestic fowl, and quickly learns to know its friends. At the tine 
country residence of the Hon. Clinton L. Merriam, near Locust Grove, X. Y.. 
especially during the winter, it is not an unusual sight to see several of these 
handsome birds unconcernedly walking about the shrubbery surrounding his 
home, and v\en coming on the veranda of the house to feed. They, like many 
other animals alK)ut the place, have learned that here at least they are among 
friends, and plainly show their full confidence in them. Even during the mating 
season a cock (irouse may fiecpiently be seen in the act of drununing within 
50 yards of some of the outbuildings. 
Bird Lore, for May-June, 1904, has an account of a wild hen 
grouse which was so tame that it would come out of the woods at 
call and allow itself to be picked up, thus displaying the most un- 
bounded confidence in its human neighbors. To lovers of nature the 
aesthetic value of this beautiful bird is very great, and its vahie is 
none the less, although it can not be measured in cash. 
Upland Game Birds, pp. 118-119, 1002. 
b Ibid., p. 119, 1902. 
cLife Hist. X. A. Hirds [I], ik (',2. 1.S92. 
d Ibid., p. 00, 1892. 
