266 



GENERAL HABITS 



In spite of the fact that a \(ihiminous amount has heen written relative to the courtship 

 of the ruffed grouse, partirularlv with respect to the drumming of the male, few data have heen 

 puhhshed coni'erning the actual relationships of the sexes in the wild during the mating period. 

 Leopold** suggests that it is probably often promiscuous but stales that the usual situation 

 seems to be a polygamy of a similar nature to the "crowing ground" t\ jie described by 

 Wight"" in connection with pheasants, in which each male has his own separate group of 

 hens. 



But the analogy holds only partially for, although the males establish drunnning areas "staked 

 out" bv their drumming logs, there seems to be no recogniza])le relationship between these 

 and the nesting sites of the females. The 484 nests, for which data are availalde from \9'M) to 

 1942, were located with respect to distance from the nearest kin lun druniniiiig log. ( See table 

 'M) . From this it seems that, if anything, the female selects a ncstiim site at a considerable 



TABLE 34. RELATION OF DRUMMIM; I.()(;S TO NESTS -CONNECTICUT HILL- 1930-1'>I2 



distance from a drumming log. One year in the Catskills. however, a nest was but 10 feet 

 from a used log. 



It appears most likely that, when in the mood for mating, the hen \ isils the cock in the 

 vicinity of his drumming log rather than the cock going to the hen as in the case of phea- 

 sants.* 



Supporting this conclusion, a number of obser\ations nia\ be cited. In a mimber of in- 

 stances where drumming logs have been under observation, another bird (presumably female) 

 has frequently been found roosting in a nearby tree, while the male occu'.ied his log. Once 

 the male and another bird were found roosting together directly abovi' the log on several 

 different nights and another time a second bird was observed on the (humming log with the 

 male. On numerous other occasions, birds judged to be females have hec-n Hushed relatively 

 close to drunnning logs while the male was drunnning. It does not follow, however, that 

 actual courtship and mating necessarily take place close to the drumming log. 



There is no (piesticm but that more than one female often \ isils the same male, though no 

 direct evidence has been secured as to the number which may nuUe with a single cock under 

 natural conditions. On s<'veral occasions, however, two or more nests have been found inider 

 circumstances strongK iri<liialing that tin- females iii\ol\c(l iiuilrd with the same male. For 

 example, in a grouj) estimated to <(irn|)rise seven males aiul eleven females, all of the latter 

 nested. And even under an equal sex ratio, several hens may choose the same male. 



• See ditcliMioii unilpr Tcrrilttry. [». 257. 





