. The American natural history; a foundation of useful knowledge of the higher animals of North America. Natural history. THE RUFFED GROUSE 107 This Grouse is in every respect a forest bird. Its ideal home is mixed forest of hardwood and coniferous trees, with the white-tailed deer and gray squirrel for company. Its home extends from Massachusetts and northern New York to northern Georgia, and westward very sparingly beyond the Mississippi to the Dakotas. Besides being beautiful, it is a bird of interesting habits, and its flesh is entirely too fine for its own good. In size it is smaller than
. The American natural history; a foundation of useful knowledge of the higher animals of North America. Natural history. THE RUFFED GROUSE 107 This Grouse is in every respect a forest bird. Its ideal home is mixed forest of hardwood and coniferous trees, with the white-tailed deer and gray squirrel for company. Its home extends from Massachusetts and northern New York to northern Georgia, and westward very sparingly beyond the Mississippi to the Dakotas. Besides being beautiful, it is a bird of interesting habits, and its flesh is entirely too fine for its own good. In size it is smaller than the pinnated grouse, or prairie chicken, but in intelligence it is second to no other grouse living. The prevailing color of the Ruffed Grouse is rusty brown, but the mottlings of black, gray and white defy intelligent description. Open or shut, the tail is a dream—cross-barred, banded and mottled most exquisitely. It is no wonder that the male bird is fond of strutting, with spread tail; but besides this it has a still more effective means of attracting the female. It perches on a log, secures a good grip with its feet, then beats the air with its wings until you hear at the end of the per- formance a long, quivering resonance disturbing the solitude, like beating upon a Hindoo tom-tom. The beats start slowly, but quickly increase in rapidity to the end, thus: "Duml-duml-duml-dum-dum-dumdumdum- ; The bird does not beat the log, and it does not beat. EASTERN RUFFED Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Hornaday, William Temple, 1854-1937. New York, C. Scribner's Sons
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