RUFFED GROUSE SHOOTING 
383 
Quail of this continent would seem to be its equivalent; 
being as it were a connecting link between the European 
Quail, and the Partridge of Europe. 
The Ruffed Grouse ranges over a very wide portion of 
the United States and British provinces, from the 51st 
degree of north latitude to the Atlantic sea-board, although 
it is much more scarce in the Southern States than in the 
midland and northern regions. It is remarkable also that 
it varies exceedingly in color; those to the northward 
being comparatively dull and gray, to those of Penn¬ 
sylvania, Kentucky, and more genial regions. 
The distinctive feature, whence this bird derives his 
title of Ruffed Grouse, is the tuft or tippet of jet-black 
feathers, glossed with metallic hues, which are shown 
more or less distinctly in each of the figures in the wood- 
cut at the head of this paper, but the most decidedly in the 
cock-bird, represented as standing on a fallen log, in the 
act of drumming, with these ruffs elevated, and his tail 
erected and expanded after the manner of a Turkey or 
Peacock, in the season of his amorous phantasies. 
This drumming, a sound sufficiently familiar to all ears 
accustomed to the sights and noises of the forest, is no 
less than the call of the male bird to his harem of atten¬ 
dant wives; for the Ruffed Grouse, unlike our pretty, 
constant, and domestic Quail, selects himself no one fond 
partner, whom to cheer with his loved notes, to comfort 
and amuse during the breeding season, but rejoices like a 
veritable grand Signor in a multiplicity of fair sultanas, 
whom so soon as they betake themselves to the cares of 
maternity, he abandons, like a roud as he is, and passes the 
remainder of the season, until the broods disperse in the 
autumn, in company with small packs of his own faithless 
sex, reveling and enjoying himself on the mountain sides, 
in his loved pines and hemlocks, while his forgotten loves 
brood patient over the hopes of the coming season. 
“ This drumming,” says Wilson, in his eloquent and 
animated page, “ is most common in spring, and is the 
call of the cock to a favorite female. It is produced in 
the following manner : the bird, standing on an old pros¬ 
trate log, generally in a retired situation, lowers his 
wings, erects his expanded tail, contracts his throat, 
elevates the two tufts of feathers on the neck, and inflates 
his whole body something in the manner of a Turkey cock 
strutting and wheeling about in great stateliness. After 
a few manoeuvres of this kind, he begins to strike his 
stiffened wings in short and quick strokes, which become 
more and more rapid until they run into each other, re¬ 
sembling the rumbling sound of very distant thunder 
dying away gradually on the ear. After a few minutes’ 
pause, this is again repeated, and in a calm day may be 
heard nearly a mile off. This is most common in the 
morning and evening, though I have heard them drum¬ 
ming at all hours of the day.” 
It is singular, that so exact an authority as Wilson has 
proved himself to be, should fall into the strange error of 
speaking of this singular amorous sound as a call to a 
single female; and elsewhere of the Pheasant , as he 
erroneously calls it, paining ; when it is notorious to all 
who have closely observed the habits of this bird, that it 
is polygamous. Such, I believe, will be found the case 
with all those gallinaceous birds which have an especial 
summons, or peculiar display of attitudes, airs, and splen¬ 
dors by which to attract the females; as may be observed 
of the common Game-cock, the Turkey, the Peacock, and 
the European Pheasant; no one of which takes to himself 
an especial and chosen partner, but disports himself in his 
wanton seraglio. 
On many occasions, during this particular season, I 
have stolen up to within a few yards of the log, whereon 
the Ruffed Grouse was so busily employed m summoning 
his dames and demoiselles around him, that he had no ears 
or eyes for my approach, which at any other period he 
would have discovered long before, and whirred away 
tumultuous on terrified and sounding pinions. I have lain 
concealed, for an hour at a time, watching with intense 
gratification the beautiful and animated gestures of the 
cock, now strutting and drumming on his log, proud as an 
eastern despot, now descending to caress and dally with 
his numerous Roxalanas, and then reascending to his post 
of pride, to send his resonant call far through the haunted 
echoes of the umbrageous pine-woods. On one such 
chance, I saw no less than seven hen birds gathered around 
a single male, all in turn expectant of his looked-for atten¬ 
tions, and all gratified by a share of his notice. If this 
be not Polygamy, I should like to receive the Grand Turk’s 
opinion on the subject, as I confess myself, if it be any 
thing less, in a state of absolute benightedness. 
The Ruffed Grouse begins her nest very early in May, 
and lays from eight to fifteen brownish-white, unspotted 
eggs, nearly the size of those of a pullet. With the exact 
period of this bird’s incubation I am not acquainted ; the 
young birds run the instant they clip the shell; obey the 
cluck of the mother, as chickens that of the hen; and are 
tended by her with extreme care and solicitude. In case 
of her being surprised with her young about her, she re¬ 
sorts to all the artifices practiced by the Quail, and even 
by the comparatively dull and stolid Woodcock, to draw 
away the. intruder from the vicinity, feigning lame¬ 
ness and incapacity to fly, until she shall have lured 
away the pursuer far from the hiding-place of her fledg¬ 
lings. Then she shall whirr away on resonant and power¬ 
ful pinions, up, up above the tops of the tall pines and 
hemlocks, and thence skate homeward noiseless on 
balanced wings, where she will find them close en¬ 
sconced among the sheltering fern-tufts, or the matted 
winter-greens and whortleberry bushes, viewless to the 
most prying eye, and undiscoverable, save to the nose of 
the unerring spaniel. But once returned, you shall see 
them emerge, chirping feebly at the soft maternal cluck, 
and hurrying to enshroud them under the shelter of her 
guardian wing, and nestle, happy younglings, among the 
downy plumage of her maternal breast. Curses upon the 
sacrilegious hand that would interrupt that sweet and 
tender scene by the sharp click of the murderous trigger ; 
yet there be brutes, in the guise of men, who scruple not 
to butcher the drumming cock, taken at fatal disadvantage, 
amid his admiring harem; scruple not to slaughter the 
brooding mother above her miserable younglings—but to 
such we cry avaunt! to such we deny the name of sports¬ 
men, nay, but of Christians, or of men! Get ye behind us, 
murderous pot-hunters ! 
The young broods grow rapidly; and by the time they 
have reached the size of the Quail, fly well and strongly 
on the wing. By the middle, or latter end of August, 
they are three parts grown, and fully feathered, with the 
exception of the tail, which is not yet complete, and re¬ 
tains a pointed form. The blundering legislation of this 
country in general, on the subject of the game-law's, has, 
in this instance, to my ideas, exceeded itself; for during 
the months of September and October, when the broods 
are still united under the care of the mother, the birds 
lying well to the setter, and when flushed scattering them¬ 
selves singly here and there among low undergrowth or 
bushes, and rarely or never taking to the tree, we are 
prohibited from shooting this bold, hardy, rambling, and 
shy bird ; this, at a later season, wild hunter of inacces¬ 
sible rock-ledges, impenetrable rhododendron brakes, and 
deep sequestered hemlock-swamps ; this, the most uncom- 
atable and self-protecting bird of all the varieties of 
American game; the only variety, perhaps, which never 
