No gifted pen lias given a better description of this bird in all his pompous acts, than that 
given by Charles Hallock : — “ While drumming, his form is erect, and his feathers appear to stand 
on end, grander and more delicate than the Turkey Cock, His head is posed over the end of his wing 
within four inches of his tail. The tail is spread like an open fan, making a half-circle, showing the 
many beautiful tints. His ruff, which is on each side of his neck, is raised, showing the beautiful jet 
it contains. The delicate curve of the wing lies close to the feet, almost hiding them. See him now, as 
he whirls right and left, and struts upon his favorite log. In ten or fifteen minutes he closes the 
whole of his feathers, and of a sudden he stretches himself, beats his wings in the air close to his sides, 
after the manner of the dung-hill cock, but more clearly and with lightening rapidity ; these rapid strokes 
produce a sound resembling the rumbling of thunder in the distance. One may often hear it six hundred 
yards, and in clear weather with wind favorable it can be heard at a much greater distance.” 
Ruffed Grouse of age and experience, and in accustomed woodland wilds, are watchful, wary, and 
sagacious, and in times of danger well know how, when, and where to go; and will often conceal them- 
selves and withhold the scent so that neither sportsman nor dog can find or get them up. But when 
young and especially when away from home, they become easily bewildered and act stupid and senseless 
and become subjects of easy capture. I knew one to be taken by a gentleman in this city, who found 
the bird standing on his window-sill apparently gazing around in wonderment at the new creation. Another 
was caught by a small dog; and another through the instrumentality of a common hen. The hen was 
discovered fighting, as the owner supposed a hawk, and he approached and caught the intruder, which to 
his astonishment proved a Ruffed Grouse. It would seem that many of the young birds when grown 
have a disposition to stray off into towns and cities and are taken in various ways, showing little or no 
disposition to use the means nature has given for escape — -true these are the exceptions, and perhaps silly 
birds, deficient in the ordinary instincts inherited usually for self preservation. I mention this from the 
fact that I have quite a number of times found birds in the woods similarly stupid, and the sportsman 
knows they are not naturally nor generally stupid birds. Once while driving some hogs through a piece 
of woodland in the winter, I saw a bird light upon a limb of a small tree about ten feet from the ground. 
It sat there with head erect, apparently unconcerned or having its attention upon some other object than 
myself. I approached and commenced clubbing it; the missiles passed in close proximity on all sides 
without making the poor creature move a muscle. I then picked up a long broken limb of a tree with 
which I easily knocked it over. At another time, some years after, while riding along a by-road leading- 
through some timber, as I passed under the boughs of an oak bush I saw a Ruffed Grouse on a limb 
only a few feet above my head. The bird did not appear to notice my presence and I dismounted and 
killed it in the manner above described. 
Like other aeronauts having great velocity, they loose their lives sometimes by coming in contact 
with objects in their flight, which they either do not see, or from which they are unable to turn their 
course in time to avoid disaster. Not long since, a lady in this city found a Grouse dead, and still warm, 
lying on the front door-step, having, no doubt, lost its life by flying against the building. And it is pos- 
sible accidents of this kind may frequently happen to them in the woods. I am inclined to believe so 
from circumstances noted as follows : A few years since, while hunting, I flushed an old bird, without 
getting a shot at it, or otherwise giving it any unusual alarm. It went off through the timber at double 
railroad speed, and struck my friend, luckily, a glancing blow on the head, while he was standing still, 
awaiting my movements several hundred yards distant. This Grouse has one very characteristic trick — 
to lie close while a person is within a few feet of it, and when he has passed on some distance, to get 
up with a whir and go off at full speed. Why this is occasionally done is quite inexplicable, for gener- 
ally they will not permit their enemies to come within even a few yards of them, and, sometimes, are so 
wild that the gunner is unable to get within shooting distance. 
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