FOUR NOTABLES 205 
stands very erect on a hollow log or stump, with head 
held high and ruffs erected and spread, and, raising its 
wings, strikes downward and forward. The sound pro- 
duced is a muffled boom or thump. It begins with a few 
slow beats, growing gradually quicker, and ends in a 
rolling, accelerated tattoo. It has a ventriloquial property. 
Sometimes, when one is very close to the bird, the drum- 
ming seems almost soundless; at other times it sounds 
much louder at a distance, as if, through some principle 
of acoustics, it were most distinctly audible at a certain 
radius from the bird. It is the bird’s best expression of 
its abounding vigour and virility, and signifies that the 
drummer is ready for love or war. 
“The female alone understands the task of incubation 
and the care of the young. Once, however, when I came 
upon a young brood, the agonized cry of the distressed 
mother attracted a fine cock bird. He raised all his 
feathers and, with ruffs and tail spread, strutted up to 
within a rod of my position, seemingly almost as much 
concerned as the female, but not coming quite so near. 
The hen sometimes struts forward toward the intruder in 
a similar manner, when surprised while with her young. 
She can raise her ruffs and strut exactly like the cock. 
“The Grouse has so many enemies that it seems remark- 
able how it can escape them, nesting as it does on the 
ground. Instances are on record, however, where birds, 
that probably have been much persecuted, have learned 
to deposit their eggs in old nests of Hawks or Crows, in 
tall trees. Whenever the mother bird leaves the nest, the 
eggs are easily seen, and, while she sits, it would seem 
impossible for her whereabouts to remain a secret to the 
