248 

 BSMtorial IRotes. 



THE DRUMMING OF THE RUFFED GROUSE .— 



'■ Many have heard the diuiiiiiiiiig, a few have seen the druin- 

 " nier, but who will show us the drum ?" This question, thus 

 crystalized by Gibson, has been continually asked by Naturalists 

 ever since the first colonization of the American continent by 

 the white man. The cliief leasons, accoiding to Dr. Hodge, 

 for its not having been hitherto answered have lain in the 

 irreconcilable wildness of the l)ird, in its steady disappearance 

 before the inarch of civilization, and in another fact to Ije 

 presently mentioned. 



But at last it is completely answered. Prof. Hodge's 

 achievement in rearing and taming the bird in spite of all 

 prognostications to the contrary, has enabled him to show us 

 the drum, and this he does in the November issue of The. 

 Country Calendar, a high class and beautifully illustrated 

 American monthly, devoted to a judicious mixture of science 

 and sport. 



The most generally accepted theor}', originally derived 

 from Indian accounts, is that the bird pounds its wings on the 

 log upon which it stands when drumming. Another is that 

 the sound is produced by smiting the wings together over the 

 back a la the pigeon in flight. Another — and this was the out- 

 come of most careful ocular observation on the part of Prof. 

 Brewster — is that the drumming is produced " by the forward 

 " beats of the stiffened wings on the air, the planes of their 

 " motion being nearly horizontal." All of these theories how- 

 ever are shewn by Dr. Hodge to be untenable on careful 

 analysis, and indeed not even to be in consonance with the 

 ascertained facts as to the posture of the bird while drumming. 

 The fact of the matter is that none of the observers, from 

 whom these theories are derived, were able to get at the 

 complete truth, because " at just the critical moment when 

 " the sound is produced, the wing moves with too lightning- 

 " like rapidit}', even in the first slow strokes, for the eye to 

 " follow it." 



One of the best of all previous descriptions, Audubon's, is 

 as follows: — " The male bird, standing erect on a prostrate 

 " decayed trunk, raises the feathers of its body in the manner 

 " of a turkey cock, draws its head towards its tail, erecting the 

 " feathers of the latter at the same time, and, raising its ruff 

 " round the neck, suffers its wings to droop, and struts about 



