274 GENERAL HABITS 



CHARACTLRISTIC OF THE MALE 



Beyond the foregoing, there are certain important habits peculiar ti> llie male. They are 

 primarily associated with Kreeding and that of dnimming is perhaps of greatest general in- 

 terest. 



Drumming 



Wild bees liiini through the forest vines 



Where the bullets of England hunnned, 

 And the partridge drums in the ringing pines 



Where the drunnners of England drunnned. 



Robert W. Cliiambers. 



No phase of grouse life has been the subject of as much description or occasioned more 

 speculation than has the drumming of the male. Called the "carpenter bird" by certain 

 Indian tribes'", the bird has since been aptly dubbed "the kettledrum of Nature's orchestra"^. 

 In one of the earliest accounts of the habits of this species, Lahontan"'', referring to "their 

 flapping", termed the performance "one of the greatest curiosities in the world". In a letter 

 accompanying the first specimen of this species sent to England from Pennsylvania about 

 1750 by John Bartram (in Edwards'"') attention is called to the "remarkable manner" in which 

 "they thump". The same author"' quotes a letter dated 1 7.52 from a Mr. Brooke of Maryland 

 referring to the "beating of the Pheasant". 



Although Lahonlaii and others had likened the sound to that of a drum. Audubon"" seems 

 lo have been the first to use this term directly to designate the performance. That this charac- 

 terization was apjiropriate is attested by the fact that subsequent authors have used it almost 

 without exception. With the rise in popularity of a number of sporting periodicals about 

 the middle of llip niiieleenth century, notably Forest and Stream and American Field, discus- 

 sions of grouse drunitning became mmierous and many an observer, both scientist and woods- 

 Muiii, undertook to explain the manner in which it is produced.* 



1 lie Druinininu. I'ri jitriiidnre 



In executing this curious invitation to love or war, the male grouse, usually from some 

 slightly elevated perch, such as a log. stump or boulder, proceeds to beat the air with his 

 wings, producing a hollow, ventriloquistic sound which commences as a series of distinct 

 "thumps" followed by a pause, continues with the strokes coming "so close together that the 

 sound of each merges with the next to produce the whirring of the 'nmffled drum' "^', and 

 finally concludes with a single, weak beat. The cadence of the ordinary drum, expressed in 

 sixteenths of a second between thumps, has been represented graphically by Allen ( in Bent™) 

 as follows: .5-6-8-a-6-.'i-5-4-4-3-3-3-2-2-l-2-l-l-l-l-l-l-00()0()OnOO(K)()()()0()Oo6oO-l. Tin- time re- 

 ([uircd has been delcrmitied In the same author as "almost cxactK eight seconds . 



Although members of Uic Investigation have observed and |ihotographed innumerable 

 drummiiigs, it seems su|icr(liious to add another description of ihe performance to those 

 already in the literature. Brewster'"', for example, has painted a particularly graphic picture of 

 the preliminary stages as follows: 



"Suddcid\ he strclched up his neck . . . and glanced keenh around . . . Then he circled 

 four or five limes around a space no more (ban a foot in diameter . . . and facing at a right 

 angle with the log seated himself on it in the altitude of a Penguin ... As he sat thus . . . 

 his tarsi and tail were pressed closelv for their entire li-ngth on . . . the log. A moment 

 later the bird bejian to drum." 



• Scr llrrwMrr". niMlgc'"-. \lrrl«llil«. S.wypr^. Allpil (in llonl*') . 



