The Drumming of the Ruffed Grouse 



249 



was taken about tin- niiddlc of the drumming ])cri()d and given one second's 

 exposure. M\- lamcra, 1)\ the \va\ , merely a regular 4x5, ten-inch bellows 

 machine, had to br i)hu I'd with the lens only four or five feet from the subject. 

 It was covered loosel\ with a green hood and sprute boughs and operated by 

 means of a fifteen-foot tube with bulb, from my blind. 



The drumming ended (the entire act lasts about ten seconds) the Orouse 

 immediately raises his head and raises and expands his tail by one motion, 

 which seems involuntary as if from the exhilaration of his late effort, the tail 

 slowly falling again to its usual ])osition. The bird may now stand motionless, 

 apparently listening for several minutes until the drumming begins again as 

 before. I have heard or seen at close range at least a hundred of the performances. 

 Each of these could be described as above, excepting a very few times when, 

 after few ])reliminary wing beats, the bird suddenly stopped, being interrupted 

 by some unusual sound such as the bark of a dog, scream of a Hawk, snapping 

 of a twig in my blind, or even a sight of me. 



C.\x\"ADlA\ RUFFED GROUSE 

 Photograptied at Snoeshoe Lake Me., by Henry R. Carey 



