102 GAME BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
enemy and persecutor, man. His head is drawn back and 
the bright blood-red combs stand erect and stiff above 
each eye; the feathers of throat and breast are raised 
and puffed out, and the wings are lowered and slightly 
open; while the outspread tail, occasionally closed with 
a swift movement, is elevated above the body. In this 
apparently uncomfortable but proud and striking atti- 
tude, the bird moves slowly about with mincing, jerky 
steps, highly impressed with his own importance and the 
imposing display he is making. Certainly, at such a 
time he is a beautiful object and well worth seeing. He 
has a method of drumming also that is peculiar to him- 
self,and is effected in the following manner: When in the 
act of strutting he suddenly flies upward but not very 
high, keeping the wings moving at a very rapid rate, and 
after holding himself stationary for a moment in the air, 
descends again slowly to the ground. The drumming 
sound is produced by the rapid movement of the wings. 
I have seen certain Pheasants, of the genus Euplocamus, 
drum in a somewhat similar manner, although they did 
not rise from the ground entirely. The wings would be 
beaten violently and rapidly for a few moments, and the 
bird would be raised on to the tips of its toes, sometimes 
the nails just touching the ground, but I never saw it 
entirely quit the earth; and the noise made by the wings 
was a low, deep rumbling with a strange ventriloquial 
power, and although I was looking directly at the bird 
during the performance, the sound appeared to come 
from some place a long distance away rather than 
directly in front of me. 
The nest is a loosely arranged affair of grass, leaves, 
and other slight material, placed under some drooping 
branches of a spruce in the depths of a swamp. A 
writer in the Forest and Stream, Mr. Bishop of Kent- 
