424 BONASA UMBELLUS, RUFFED GEOUSE. 



tarsi (uot standiug erect, as described by some writers), its tail project- 

 ing nearly horizontally behind (not erected) and spread; the head is 

 drawn back, the feathers pressed close to the body. The wings are then 

 raised and stiffened, and dramming commences by a slow, hard stroke 

 with both wings, downward and forward ; but they are stopped before 

 they touch the body. The rapidity of this motion is increased after the 

 first few beats, when the wings move so fast that only a semi-circular 

 haze over the bird is visible, this rapid vibration causing the rolling 

 noise with which the sound terminates. The movements of the wings, 

 and the rumbling thereby produced, are entirely analogous to those 

 produced by the Humming-bird when hovering over a flower. This I 

 believe to be the true description of the maimer of drumming, and, I am 

 happy to add, that my father, who has often crawled up to within twenty 

 feet of the bird at such times, corroborates it in every particular. 

 There are, doubtless, among those who read the 'Sportsman,' many who 

 have had opportunities to watch the operations of the Ruffed Grouse 

 when engaged in drumming, and the experience of each one would be 

 a very acceptable contribution to our knowledge of the habits of this 

 very interesting species. 



" The fact that the drumming of the Euffed Grouse is heard as often 

 in autumn as in spring, has raised the question of ivhy this sound is pro- 

 duced. In regard to this, I^uttall is probably correct in saying that it 

 is often ' an instinctive expression of hilarity and vigor,' as well as the 

 call-note of the male during the breeding season." 



To tl'.is article Mr. J. H. Batty replies in the following terms : 



"In No. 21 of the ' Sportsman' I find an article of my friend, Mr. Eidg- 

 way, 'Why and how does the Ruffed Grouse drum?' I solved the 

 mystery, to my own satisfaction, some five years ago, when living at 

 Springfield, Massachusetts. The peculiar noise made by the Ruffed 

 Grouse is caused by the backs or exterior sides of the wings striking 

 each other as they are forcibly raised over the back of the bird. I have 

 seen the Grouse drum, within a few yards of me, a number of times. 

 On one occasion I was sitting on a log in the woods, by a stone wall, 

 eating m^ lunch. While thus engaged, a Ruffed Grouse mounted the 

 wall, about fifty yards from my position, and commenced walking on it 

 directly toward me. I immediately laid down behind the log on which 

 I had been sitting, and awaited the approach of the bird. When it had 

 reached a point opposite me it mounted a large elevated stone on the 

 top of the wall and commenced drumming, after a series of struttings 

 backward and forward on the wall, as described by Audubon, Wilson, 

 and others. When the bird was drumming its back was toward me, 

 and I had an unobstructed view of it against the sky. The Grouse first 

 struck its wings together slowly and strongly, then gradually increased 

 these strokes until the single strokes could not be detected. During 

 the more rapid beating of the wings the 'semi-circular haze' caused by 

 the wings was observable, as stated by Mr. Heushaw. The wings of 

 the Grouse were stiffened and the strokesgiven from the shoulder (if I 

 may so speak), and the wings did not appear to touch the bird's sides. 



" This occurred in October. Later in the season, when going the 

 round of my mink and muskrat traps, I found a male Ruffed Grouse 

 caught in one of them by the leg. Tbe bird had evidently been caught 

 but a short time before my arrival, and, as the trap which held it was a 

 small and weak one, and the jaws were filled with leaves, the bird's leg 

 had not been broken. I carried the Grouse home and put it in a large 

 feed-box^ which was standing in the open air under the shade of an 

 apple-tree. When returning from a hunting excursion one day, one of 



