RUFFED GROUSE SHOOTING 
BY HENRY WILLIAM HERBERT, AUTHOR OF FRANK FORESTER’S “ FIELD SPORTS,” 11 FISH AND FISHING,” ETC. 
THE RUFFED GROUSE. (Tetrao Umbellus.) 
The beautiful bird which is depicted above, is that 
known as the Partridge, in New Jersey, and all the States 
east and north of the Delaware, and as the Pheasant every¬ 
where to the westward of that line stream ; and by these 
provincial vulgarisms it is like to be known and desig¬ 
nated, until sportsmen will take the trouble of acquiring 
a little knowledge of their own trade, and will cease to 
regard naturalists as mere theorizing bookmen, and scien¬ 
tific names and distinctions as supererogatory humbug. 
The distinction between the Grouse and other birds of 
the gallinaceous order, is that the former are invariably, 
the latter never, feathered below the knee. This distinc¬ 
tion never fails', and is very easily noted ; although, in 
different species of the genus, the extent of the feathering 
differs. In the Ruffed Grouse the soft fleecy feathering of 
the leg is sparse, and descends only to the middle of the 
shank. In the Pinnated Grouse, Prairie Hen of the West, 
and Grouse of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Rhode 
Island, the legs are feathered the whole way down the 
shank, to the insertion of the toes; and the same is the 
ease of the Canada Grouse, or Spruce Partridge of the 
remote Eastern States. In all those species of Grouse, 
which are known as Ptarmigan, dwellers of the extreme 
north, or in the northern temperature of iced mountain- 
tops, the feathering continues the whole length of the toes 
quite to the insertion of the claws—this I merely mention 
par parenthese, as there is but one of the Ptarmigans likely 
to fall within reach of the sportsman ; namely, the Willow- 
Grouse, or Red-Necked Partridge of the extreme parts of 
Maine, and the Easternmost British provinces, and thence 
so far as to the Arctic Circle. 
These distinctions are easily borne in mind, and will be 
found all-sufficient to the discriminating woodsman, who 
desires to be able to call things by their right names, and 
to give a reason for doing so. 
The true Pheasant is a native of Asia originally, though 
it has been naturalized in Europe, since a very early 
period, and is now abundant in France and England. 
No species of this bird, which is distinguished bya pointed 
tail, above half a yard in length, and by its splendidly 
gorgeous coloring, little inferior in intensity to that of 
the Peacock, has ever been found, or is believed to exist 
in any portion of the Western hemisphere; although those 
singular and showy birds, the Curafoas of South America, 
have some relation to it. 
The seme is true of the real Partridge; although the 
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