April 9, 1910.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
571 
knolls go under, the tops of the smaller trees 
stand out like bushes and fifty feet and more 
of water runs in the river channel. 
This is the spring freshet. Here and there 
its smooth surface is broken by the whisking 
tail of the alewife. The fisherman mends his 
net. The small boy gathers the pussywillow and 
hovers fascinated upon the shores of the great 
fresh sea. A faint illusive green appears in the 
tops of the floating groves. And then one day 
comes the exotic note of the first blackbird. 
Spring has come. 
A week, two weeks the freshet persists. The 
fisherman gathers in his finny crop; the gun of 
the muskrat hunter echoes over the waters; the 
note of the blackbird grows rusty; a wave of 
green surmounts the groves and sweeps to the 
water’s edge. Slowly and with many fluctua¬ 
tions the tide goes out, retreating from one level 
to the next, dwindling faster each day. Then 
comes another night of change, and in the morn¬ 
ing the freshet is no more. High in the scat¬ 
tered groves it has left the rusty mark of its 
power. 
Ruffed Grouse—Partridge. 
Continued from page 532. 
When the young birds are two or three weeks 
old their wing feathers have grown enough to 
enable them to fly, and sometimes, if suddenly 
surprised, some of them may leave the ground 
and fly up into low branches where they stand 
motionless with their necks stretched upward and 
personal knowledge of three birds flying against 
houses, one against a fence and two through 
windows, opened or closed, on a single farm in 
Connecticut. 
A correspondent of Forest and Stream says: 
“Once while walking along the street I saw 
a grouse dusting in the roadway. At first I sup¬ 
posed it was a hen, but as I approached, it rose, 
flew straight down the street and in at the open- 
up a portion of its diet. It is fond of berries of 
all sorts and 'blackberry patches and wild grape 
vines are its favorite resorts when the fruit is 
ripe. Indeed, from midsummer until early win¬ 
ter there are always berries for them to feed on. 
In autumn also they feed on fallen apples, and 
wild apple trees in the midst of woods are a 
favorite resort for them morning and evening. 
They eat some grass and the leaves of many 
The Ice Breaking Up. 
may be so closely approached that one may al¬ 
most take them in the hand. 
By the middle of August the young are al¬ 
most fully grown, and as cool weather approaches 
they begin to separate, no longer keeping in a 
close flock, but wandering off by twos, tbrees 
and fours. As the weather grows colder they 
become still more solitary in their ways, although 
up to mid-winter two or three may often be 
found together. 
It is during late September and October that 
the grouse for a short time wander about in a 
most eccentric manner and indulge in such un¬ 
usual performances that this is sometimes called 
their “crazy season.” Having separated, they 
seem to be searching for new homes or perhaps 
for winter quarters, and wander about in seem¬ 
ingly aimless fashion so that they are often found 
in most unusual places. Such are vacant build¬ 
ings, village streets, the lawn of a country place- 
or even within a covered country bridge. At 
this time, too, they often fly against houses or 
fences, or through windows, opened or closed, 
and in this way many birds are killed. I have 
A SPRING FRESHET. 
ing of the large covered bridge that spanned the 
Mohawk. The bird lit on a beam near the roof. 
Getting up to the beam I took the bird off. He 
remained perfectly motionless as is their habit 
when approached by man. This grouse when he 
rose in the roadway made comparatively little 
noise. * * *” 
The same writer says: “I recollect an inci¬ 
dent that occurred in our city where a grouse 
flew into a small barn and perched on a beam. 
The owner of the premises having invited a 
gentleman into the barn on some business, the 
guest said to the owner: ‘I see you keep poul¬ 
try.’ ‘No,’ said the owner, ‘I keep no poultry, 
but my neighbors do, and I wish they would 
come and take that pullet away. She has been 
here now three or four days and I am tired of 
feeding her.’ The visitor looked a little more 
sharply and said, ‘That is not a pullet; that is 
a partridge,’ and so it was to the great surprise 
of the other.” ' 
The food of the ruffed grouse is very varied. 
In summer—and especially for the young birds— 
insects, notably grasshoppers and crickets, make 
The Overflowed River Bottoms. 
plants. They feed on the fruit of the skunk 
cabbage ( Symplocarpus ) ; early in the winter 
tearing away the pithy covering that holds the 
seeds and picking them out from their spongy 
bed, or later gathering them from the ground. 
Most of all they like nuts, such as chestnuts, 
acorns and beechnuts. I have taken from the 
crops of grouse two or three pignuts, a double 
handful of chestnuts and as many beechnuts as 
I could hold in one hand. There is a record of 
a small snake having been taken from a grouse's 
crop. 
In late winter or spring it resorts to the apple 
orchard to feed on the buds of the trees, but it 
is not likely that it does any harm in this way. 
The Biological Survey has shown that over 10 
per cent, of the food of the ruffed grouse is 
animal and 89 per cent, vegetable matter. The 
vegetable food is seeds, more than 11 per cent.; 
fruit, more than 28 per cent. ; leaves and buds, 
more than 48 per cent. Most of the insects eaten 
are injurious; either those that prey upon the 
growing crop or borers destructive to the forest. 
Every ruffed grouse that is killed, if he had 
