30 



TEE OOLOGIST 



Notes on the Habits of the Ruffed 

 Grouse. 



BY MANLY IIAKDY. 



fN writing concerning this bird, whose 

 habits are supposed to be well known, 

 I shall confine inyself entirely to those 

 points which are least known, or cencern- 

 ing which authorities are in error. Dr. 

 Coues, Samuels and other naturalists state 

 that the drumming is produced by the bird 

 "beating upon his sides and the log." In 

 this last they are certainly in error, as, first, 

 the wings never show any abrasion, as would 

 be the case if beaten upon a log ; second, 

 they usually drum on old damp logs which 

 cannot be made to give any sound ; and 

 lastly they always sit crosswise with the 

 log, so that even if perfectly hollow no sound 

 could be produced by scraping the wings 

 lengthwise with it. While it is compara- 

 tively easy to see a Grouse while its wings 

 are in motion, yet so few have ever been 

 near enough to observe it minutely, that 1 

 will briefly describe it. The Grouse usually 

 selects a large mossy log, near some open 

 hedge or clearing or woods road, and part- 

 ly screened by bushes, where he can see 

 and not be seen. When about to drum he 

 erects his neck feathers, spreads his tail, 

 and, with drooping wings, steps with a jerk- 

 ing motion along the log for some distance 

 each way from his drumming place, walk- 

 ing back and forth several times, looking 

 sharply in every direction ; then standing 

 crosswise, he stretciies himself to his fullest 

 hight and delivers the blows with his wings 

 fully upon his sides, his wings being several 

 inches clear from the log. After drumming 

 he settles quietly down into a sitting pos- 

 ture, and remains intently listening for live 

 to ten minutes, when, if no cause for alarm 

 is discovei'ed he repeats the process. Many 

 suppose that the drumming is to attract the 

 attention of the females. While it is hard 

 to prove a negative, the fact that they drum 

 nearly as much in the fall as in the spring, 

 and that when we have warm winters I 

 .have known them to drum every month in 



the year, would seem to argue against this 

 theory. W^hen one is killed on a log favor- 

 ably situated, it is very common to find 

 another in possession the next morning. 

 I have several times shot one when anoth- 

 er lay in a snare directly below him, and 

 have known five to be snared on one log, 

 in one spring. In the fall they usually 

 drum mostly on afternoons and often drum 

 all night, especially before rain storms. * 



Much has been written about their dying 

 in the snow by being imprisoned under the 

 crust. Anyone who has ever tried to hold 

 the wings of a Grouse when dying need not 

 be told that there never was a crust made 

 hard enough to hold one ; besides which 

 they can get enough buds to support life 

 any length of time, as they often wander 

 many rods under the snow and remain un- 

 der it several days at a time, when it is 

 perfectly light and there is no crust. They 

 are often killed by foxes, lynx, etc., when 

 under the crust, but though I have been in 

 the woods a large part of the time for thir- 

 ty winters, I have never found a dead one ; 

 and diligent inquiries among hunters who 

 in tlie aggregate have spent many hundred 

 winters in the woods, fail to find a single 

 authentic case of their so dying, though ev- 

 ery year old farmers who seldom go into 

 the woods will tell one that "the hard 

 crust last winter killed all the Partridges." 

 The cause is either an excess of foxes. Owls 

 or a wet breeding season, so that eggs failed 

 to hatch. Many think that the Grouse eats 

 buds* because it is obliged to, from being 

 unable to procure other food. The fact is 

 that every year some birds begin to bud in 

 September, and most bud considerably in 

 October. I have seen them picking pop- 

 lar leaves in August, and have shot them 

 with their crops full of them. Though 

 both beech-nuts and berries are abundant 

 this fall, 1 have already seen Grouse bud- 

 ding, and sliot them with these in their 

 crops, which seems to prove that they eat 

 them from preference long before they are 

 obliged to do so. Samuels states (p. 390) 



*Iu this term I also mean to include the mast. 



