146 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 
from the log. After drumming he settles quietly down 
into a sitting posture and remains silently listening for 
five or ten minutes, when, if no cause for alarm is dis- 
covered, he repeats the process.” 
Mr. Ernest E. Thompson, in his “Birds of Mani- 
toba,”’ describes the drumming as he saw it. It is said 
that if, during the drumming, another male grouse 
makes its appearance near the drumming place, the 
birds fight with much spirit. An account of such a bat- 
tle is given by a correspondent of Forest and Stream, 
who writes from Schenectady, New York, and signs 
himself ‘“Dorp.” He says, in substance: 
“T was walking along a country road, about the first 
of June, when I heard from the depths of an adjacent 
wood an unusual rustling sound for which I could not 
account. The sound stopped, began again, again 
stopped, and was repeated at intervals of a minute or 
two. Not knowing what caused the sound, I crossed 
the fence and cautiously approached the place. After 
I had gone about fifty yards, screening myself as much 
as possible behind trees, I came up to within twenty 
yards of a large dead log, upon which stood two ruffed 
grouse in battle array. They stood something like six 
feet from each other, with the black feathers around 
their necks raised till they almost pointed toward their 
heads, which were lowered, and which they were shak- 
ing at each other in defiance. In a few moments they 
gradually approached each other, and when about two 
feet apart they rushed together, the momentum and 
their wings carrying them into the air about a foot 
