Ruffed Grouse PIGEONS, QUAILS, GROUSE. 



to the duties of nest-building and incubation alone; the 

 males seem to feel themselves de trop at this time, and keep 

 separate, roosting together, and rejoining their mates when 

 the young are hatched, and then they roam as a family. 



The male Ruffed Grouse has the same habit of pluming 

 and strutting as the Turkey-cock, and also makes the drum- 

 ming noise which has caused so much dispute and which is 

 attributed to at least four different causes. This peculiar 

 sound begins in spring, and, though not belonging to the 

 breeding-season alone, is most frequently indulged in at that 

 time. It seems to be in token of general good health and 

 spirits as well as to call attention to the drummer. Heard 

 at a little distance it is a hollow, vibrating sound, beginning 

 softly and increasing, as if a small rubber ball was dropped 

 slowly and then rapidly bounced on a drumhead. 



You may hear the drumming fifty times, without seeing 

 the bird from which it proceeds, and you may even see the 

 bird plainly without having the slightest clue to how the 

 sound is produced. 



It is variously stated that the Grouse beats with its 

 wings on a log ; that it raises its wings and strikes their 

 edges above its back ; that it claps them against its side like 

 a crowing rooster, and, lastly, that it beats the air. You may 

 take your choice of the methods, the result is the same. 



Last April, when in the woods near Ciecos Brook, I saw a 

 Grouse drum. I was sitting on the ground and the bird 

 flew over my head and lit on a rail that topped an old stone 

 wall; his back was toward me. For a few minutes he 

 remained quiet as if listening, ruffled his feathers, raised 

 his tail, moved his wings slowly, as if to test them. Then 

 beat them more and more rapidly until my eyes blinked 

 hopelessly. When the noise ceased, the wings drooped 

 slightly, and in a moment more the bird flew away. 



This almost agrees with Thoreau's positive assertion that 

 he had seen a Partridge drum while standing on a wall, and 

 that it stood upright and struck its wings together behind 

 its back, but striking neither the wall or its body, and he 

 bravely declares that any one who affirms the contrary is 



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