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390 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 
usually ovoidal in form, sometimes nearly rounded, and their 
dimensions average about 1.65 by 1.20 inches: specimens 
are occasionally found much larger than this size, and many 
considerably smaller. In about fifty specimens before me, 
collected perhaps in ten different States, about five are of a 
yellowish-buff color, marked with numerous spots of brown ; 
others are more yellowish, and have more obscure spots, 
while the greater number have no markings at all. 
From several instances which have come to my knowl- 
edge, I am inclined to think that the female Ruffed Grouse, 
if persistently molested when nesting on the ground, avails 
herself of the abandoned nest of a crow, or the shelter 
afforded in the top of some tall broken trunk of a tree, 
in which she deposits her eggs. Two of my collectors in 
Northern Maine have sent me eggs which they positively 
declared were found in a crow’s nest in a high pine, but 
which are undoubtedly of this species ; and recently I have 
heard of another occurrence from my friend L. HE. Rick- 
secker, of Pennsylvania. The only satisfactory theory that 
I can advance to account for these departures from the 
usual habits of the Grouse is, that the birds had been much 
disturbed, their eggs or young perhaps destroyed; and as 
they are often in the trees, and are expert climbers, they 
laid their eggs in these lofty situations to secure protection 
from their numerous foes below. 
During the season of incubation, the males congregate 
together and remain apart from the females, until the young 
birds are nearly full-grown: they then join them, and remain 
with them until the ensuing spring. 
Early in spring, the male begins “ drumming: ” this habit 
is peculiar to this species, and is probably familiar to all 
persons who have passed much of their time in the woods. 
LT have heard this drumming as early as February, and as 
late as September ; but usually it is not heard much before 
the first of April. The bird resorts to a fallen trunk of a 
tree or log, and, while strutting like the male Turkey, beats 
