BON ASA VMBELLUS. 
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% but a short distance. As winter approaches, they leave the high lands and enter the 
swamps, choosing thick evergreens as roosting places; then, when the weather becomes 
very severe, especially if the wind be blowing strong from the north or west, they may be 
found enjoying the brief sunlight on the southern exposures which rise from the lower lev¬ 
els. At this season, especially after the snow falls, they gain a precarious living by pick¬ 
ing off laurel buds, dried barberries and other fruit. After heavy snow-storms, when the 
weather is extremely cold, they have the singular habit of dropping, or diving, into snow¬ 
drifts and will often remain there for some length of time; then if the snow chances to crust 
over so that they cannot escape, they perish from starvation. 
As soon as the genial influence of the coming spring has caused the buds to swell on 
the birch and other trees, the Ruffed Grouse eat them in large quantities. They will also 
visit the orchards and bud the apple trees. They do considerable mischief in this way, in 
sparcely settled districts, insomuch so, that atone time, a bounty of twenty-five cents each 
was offered by certain towns in Massachusetts for their heads. It is almost incredible, what 
a vast amount of buds a single Grouse will eat; thus, I once took one hundred and eighty 
apple buds from the crop of a bird that I had shot about ten o’clock in the morning, and as 
this was but a single meal, it can well be understood that a flock of ten or a dozen, Avould 
completely denude a small orchard in a short time. 
About April, the Ruffed Grouse are to be found in pairs, and in May the females con¬ 
struct the rude nests, choosing a situation beneath a brush heap, under a fallen tree-top, 
by the side of a log, or under the overhanging branches of a bush. The female sits closely 
and one may almost walk on her before she will rise. She will not often feign lameness 
when driven off her eggs, unless they be well advanced; but when the young appear, es¬ 
pecially if they be very small, she will droop her wings, spread her tail, and running up to 
the intruder, will drop nearly at his feet, at the same time, uttering a peculiar cackling. 
Taking care, however, to just elude his grasp, she will use every endeavor to induce him 
to pursue her and leave her helpless young which, in the mean time, warned by the voice 
of their mother, run into the nearest place of concealment; thus some hide beneath leaves, 
some under logs, some in clumps of grass; in short, in a moment’s time, not one is to be 
seen, and then the old Grouse suddenly takes wing and also disappears. I have, like many 
others, often been a witness to a scene, much as I have described, but I remember upon 
one occasion, I concluded to wait after the disappearance of the mother, and see what the 
young would do. This was in June, in the woods of White Deer Valley, Pennsylvania, 
and I had come suddenly upon the little family as they were crossing a space destitute of 
bushes. The old Grouse gave her alarm and as her progeny were about a week old, they 
were not long in scattering and concealing themselves, when I quietly stepped behind the 
trunk of a huge tree which grew near. I waited without motion or sound for about ten 
minutes, during which time, I did not see a single young, when the mother bird which 
had flown some distance, came running back, uttering as she came, a series of chuckling 
notes, quite diiferent from any I ever heard before. She did not appear to take the slight¬ 
est notice of me, although I was in plain sight for I had unwittingly choosen the wrong 
side of the tree for concealment, but continued to approach, passing within a foot of me, all 
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