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Ruffed Grouse — Part 3
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Bob Whites, that have a power of withholding their scent by tightly compressing their feathers--a trick not known to the grouse apparently--do not escape detection any better than they. Many skilled sportsmen, armed with the most approved breech-loaders, and aided by the best trained dogs that bushwhack a region where grouse are known to be abundant, return home with light bags. No bird that flies, unless it is the Jack snipe, is so seldom hit. A tremendous whir-r-r-r of rapidly beaten wings startles the tyro out of a good aim. Unusually strong chest muscles for concentrated but limited exertion, and especially stiff wings, enable the grouse to hurl themselves into the air with a thunderous velocity; but, like all their allies, they can steal away as silently as Arabs, if necessary. Darting away directly opposite from the sportsman, a well "educated" bird quickly places a tree between itself and the shooter, threading a tortuous maze in and out through the woods, higher and higher, until, having cleared the tree tops, it is off to freedom. Fear, not a natural, but an acquired state of mind, has not yet blasted the peace of grouse in regions where they have never been molested; and knowing no worse enemy there than a fox, from which they are safe when roosting in a tree, and mistaking the sportsman's dog for one, they have been sometimes credited with stupidity because by remaining on the perch they allow a man to rake the covey. But such assault and battery is happily rare. Certain hawks and owls do awful execution. Snares of silk and horsehair, poacher's traps, and "twitch-ups" of young saplings bent by the farmer's boy, do much to spoil the sport, that becomes shockingly rarer year by year. To escape pursuit a grouse will often dive into the snow; and although dense feathers cover its body and legs, it will make a similar plunge to keep warm in extremely cold weather, a solitary shiverer, unlike the Bob Whites, that bury themselves in cosy, snug family parties; but, like them, it, too, sometimes gets imprisoned by an impenetrable ice crust, and so perishes miserably.
The Canadian Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus togata), to be distinguished from the preceding by the prevailing gray, instead of chestnut, of its upper parts, its grayer tail, and its more distinctly barred under parts, almost as clear on the breast and underneath as on the sides, is doubtless simply a climatic variation, only the systematists seeing a sufficient difference in the two birds to justify their separation into two distinct species. Their habits and eggs are identical. Often no difference can be detected by sportsmen who bring home both species in their game bags. The spruce forests of northern New York and New England and the British provinces, westward to Northern Oregon, Idaho, and Washington to British Columbia, north to James Bay, is the Canadian ruffed grouse's range.
The Gray Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus umbelloides), a still paler variation, in which the gray tints predominate, ranges from the Rocky Mountain region of the United States and British America north to Alaska and east to Manitoba. Considering the altitudes of from seven to ten thousand feet at which it usually lives, the lonely canons it frequents, and its rare persecution at the hands of men, it is surprisingly shy, according to Captain Bendire. Otherwise it has no trait, apparently, not already touched upon in the life history of the ruffed grouse.
The Oregon, or Red Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus sabini), the darkest, handsomest variation of the ruffed grouse anywhere found, roams over the coast mountains of Northern California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, reaching Alaska and many of the Pacific Coast islands, and occasionally straying into Colorado, Dakota, Montana, and Idaho. Where the Canadian variety encroaches its territory, however, little or no difference in the plumage may be detected. The account of the ruffed grouse's habits, nest, etc., should be read to avoid repetition, since the Oregon bird is simply a climatic variation of the eastern species.