RUFFED GROUSE—PARTRIDGE 149 
was astonished to find what I supposed a stone to be 
a dead male grouse. Upon it the drummer had stood 
and drummed, and about it he had paraded as described. 
The dead bird had one shot only, through his head. 
It was the same I had shot a couple of days before, 
which had flown there and fallen dead. 
“T have read that the drumming of the ruffed grouse 
is a demonstration of love and courtship, but from 
this incident I conclude that it is also either one of 
rivalry and triumph, or sounding a knell or requiem 
of a departed mate or friend.” 
With this should be compared Audubon’s account of 
the actions of a wild turkey cock after a fight in which 
he has killed his rival. 
This same correspondent of Forest and Stream, an 
observant man, has expressed the view that the grouse 
drums to announce the approach of day at dawn, to 
announce any approaching unusual atmospherical 
change during the night or day, to make his where- 
abouts known to the female, to celebrate her coming, 
to announce a triumph over a rival, to sound a requiem 
over a dead mate or friend, to amuse himself. Most 
of these motives are precisely those which are supposed 
to actuate the domestic cock in his crowing, or in the 
flapping of his wings which commonly accompanies 
the crowing. It is certainly true that the grouse drums 
at night as well as by day, and that he frequently drums 
just before daylight and often just before “a change of 
weather.” 
Although so excellent an observer as Captain Ben- 
