270 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 
pulse that enables it to sail long distances, when the 
wings are held stiffly expanded to their full extent, 
somewhat decurved, and with the points of the quill 
feathers separated. The bird’s voice is highly char- 
acteristic. It is so almost invariably uttered during 
flight, at particular moments with reference to the de- 
livery of the wing strokes, that for some time after my 
first acquaintance with the birds I was in doubt whether 
the sound were mechanical or vocal; nor was the un- 
certainty removed until I had heard it from the birds 
at rest. The ordinary note of alarm is almost invaria- 
bly sounded just before the bird takes wing, whether 
from the ground or from a tree, and is usually repeated 
with each succeeding set of wing-beats, seeming to be 
jerked out of the bird by its muscular efforts. But we 
hear it also when, the bird being at rest, it becomes 
alarmed, yet not sufficiently to fly away; and when a 
bird is passing at full speed, sufficiently near, we may 
clearly distinguish the mechanical whirring sound of 
its wings, as well as, sometimes, the creaking rustle of 
its tail feathers as it turns its flight. When roosting 
at ease among the trees, and probably at other times, 
the grouse have a different set of notes—a sociable 
cackling or clucking, with which they entertain each 
other. 
“In conversation with Captain Hartley, of the 
Twenty-second Regiment, an accomplished sportsman, 
well acquainted with the ways of our game birds, I 
was informed of an interesting point of difference in 
the habits of this bird and the pinnated grouse. In 
