SOOTY GROUSE 105 



of Seattle, where Samuel F. Rathbun had taken us to see some of 

 these grouse. After some difficulty in following up the ventriloquial 

 notes, we located the performer on a horizontal limb, close to tiie 

 trunk of an enormous Douglas fir, fully 50 feet up in the densest part 

 of the tree, but in plain sight ; we watched him for some time through 

 powerful glasses and could plainly see every detail. He turned about 

 occasionally on the branch, facing first one way and then the other, 

 with drooping wings, lifting and spreading his tail. When ready to 

 hoot he stretched out his neck, on which two large, white, rosettes 

 appeared, swelling open and showing the naked sacks of dull yellow 

 skin, which puffed out to semiglobular shape with each of the four 

 or five hoots; the plumage of the whole neck and throat swelled out 

 with each note and the bill opened slightly. The hooting notes were 

 much like the soft, low notes of the great horned owl ; when near at 

 hand they seemed to be softer and less powerful, but they really 

 have great carrying power and can be heard for a long distance. 

 They have been likened to the noise made by blowing into the bung- 

 hole of an empty barrel or by swiftly swinging a rattan cane. The} 7 

 were given in groups of four to six notes each ; I wrote down the full 

 group as hoooo, hoot, hoot, hoot, a-hoot, hoot, or sometimes as four, 

 five, or six straight hoots, or as different combinations of the above 

 notes. I recorded the intervals between the hootings as varying from 

 12 to 36 seconds ; the following series was noted : 12, 18, 22, 23, 35, 14, 

 22, 22, 16, IT, 19, 14, and 32 seconds. During the intervals of silence 

 the bird assumed a normal pose, or strutted about. Dawson (1909) 

 says : " The hooting, or grunting notes, of this Grouse are among the 

 lowest tones of Nature's thorobase, being usually about C of the First 

 Octave, but ranging from E Flat down to B Flat of the Contra 

 Octave." 



Leslie L. Haskin has sent me the following notes : 



Early in March the males begin to manifest their presence by their muffled 

 hooting, which proceeds from high up in the trees. At this time the birds 

 will usually be found sitting close to the bole of the fir, their bodies hard to 

 discern against the general grays and browns of the surrounding limbs. The 

 "hooting" of the grouse is one of the most distinctive and peculiar bird notes 

 of the Douglas-fir region, as characteristic in its way as the drumming of its 

 relative, the ruffed grouse. This call can be best imitated by closing the lips 

 tightly, puffing out the cheeks, and then articulating the sound oo in a deep 

 tone, low in the throat. The hooting of the grouse has a muffled, ventriloquial 

 quality that makes it exceedingly hard to locate — now seeming far, now near, 

 now high, now low — and as a dozen birds may be calling at the same time 

 it becomes very confusing. 



As March advances the hooting becomes more pronounced, and the birds 

 begin to move about more freely, and when mating takes place they descend 

 to the ground. Now, where no grouse were visible only a few days previous, 

 the whole forest may be alive with them. The females have a cackling call to 



