Commonly upon rising it goes behind a tree trunk or some thick foliage and keeps this between itself and its pursuer. Often it doubles upon its trail, circles, and lies close until the hunter has passed, rising behind him and getting safely away. Sometimes it flies rapidly out of sight but alights high in some tall, thick pine where it remains motionless until the coast is clear, and so, in one way or another, a few birds manage to survive the season and then they face the winter. As the inclement season comes on, they leave the heights and come down into the more sheltered valleys and swamps where they subsist on buds, foliage, twigs, and dried berries until vernal breezes blow and nature calls them again to the mating. The Ruffed Grouse can be kept plentiful even in closely settled farming regions, provided small woods or thickets be left or are planted, and foods suitable for different seasons of the year are provided.
Young birds are largely insectivorous.
More than 95 per cent. The study of the food habits of the young has not been as extensive as it should be, but it indicates that the chicks eat grasshoppers, cutworms, certain beetles, ants, parasitic wasps, buffalo tree-hoppers, spiders, grubs. and caterpillars. Undoubtedly many small insects and their eggs which are found in the woods and adjacent fields will be added to the list. The beetles seem to be preferred, but Dr. Judd says the Grouse he shot in September, in New Hampshire, were feeding largely on red-legged grasshoppers, which were abundant in the pastures where the birds foraged. The vegetable food consists largely of seeds, fruit, buds and leaves.