THE SOOTY GROUSE. 



573 



on some prominent stump or bowlder. The bird, as a rule, is one of the most 

 phlegmatic of fowls, and his courting antics, grotesque enough in themselves, 

 are conducted with a gra\it}' which makes them e\en more absurd. Whatever 

 the bird's situation in hooting, the air-sacs of the throat, chest, and neck, are 

 first inflated. These auxiliary parts are capable of enormous distension, inso- 

 much that the total bulk of the sacs, together with their covering feathers, dur- 

 ing excitement, exceeds that of the body itself. 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. Hoot, hoot. hoot, tu-hoot. the legend runs, altho there 



Tdhcn near Idcoina. 



Photo by tlic Author. 



.\ XHST IX THE KIR WOODS. 



is a prefatory note of the same character which is inaudible at a distance; and 

 the bird not infrequently adds another at the end, after the slightest apprecia- 

 ble pause, as tho he required a fraction of a second in which to recover from 

 the effort of the double note. There is in the act of utterance a corresponding 

 pulsation of the air sacs, but these can serve only as a sounding board, for the 

 noise is made in the .syrinx, and ma)- be passably imitated in tliat of a freshly- 

 killed specimen by placing the thumb and forefinger over the apertures, and 

 blowing at the proper inter\-als thru the entering windpipe. The sound may 

 also be well reproduced by the human \'oice, and we have oft'ended many a 

 hooter ere now by challenging in his preserves. 



