THREE FAMOUS GAME BIRDS 351 



tree, or the rail of an old fence, and swells his breast 

 proudly till the long feathers on each side of his neck 

 rise into a beautiful shining black ruftle or tippet, such 

 as you can see in some old-fashioned portraits of the 

 times when Elizal)eth Avas queen of England. He 

 droops his wings and spreads liis tail to a brown and 

 gray banded fan, which he holds straight up as a Tur- 

 key does his when he is strutting and gobbling. Next 

 he raises his wings and begins to beat the air — slowly 

 at first, and then faster and faster. ' Boom — boom — 

 boom ' — the hollow sound comes rolling with a noise 

 like beating a bass drum. 



" Thus does the Ruffed Grouse drum up his mate, as 

 the Woodpecker hammers or the Thrush sings. You 

 remember the booming sound made by the wings of 

 the Nighthawk, when the air whizzed through them ? 

 When Bob White and his Grouse brother fly, their 

 wings make a whirring noise that is equally startling." 



" And does his mate understand that the drummingr 

 is meant to call her ? " 



^' Yes, surely ; and soon there is a nest of dry leaves 

 somewhere about the roots of a tree, or under a fallen 

 log. Father Grouse then becomes selfish and takes 

 himself off with some men friends, leaving mamma 

 alone to hatch the eggs and feed the babies. But this 

 is not so dreadful as it seems, because the young ones 

 are fully covered with down like Chickens when they 

 first leave the egg^ and able to follow their mother ; 

 besides, they are the most obedient little things im- 

 aginable. 



" If she but gives one cluck of alarm, they vanish, 

 under the leaves or twigs, and do not stir again until 



