THE AUK: 



A QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF 

 ORNITHOLOGY. 



Vol. xxxvi. July, 1919. No. 3. 



SOME NOTES ON THE DRUMMING OF THE RUFFED 



GROUSE. 



BY H. E. TUTTLE. 



Plate XI. 



Some controversies die hard, and the discussion of the drumming 

 of the Ruffed Grouse is one of them. Happily the observations 

 made by Professor Hodge on his domesticated Grouse settled many 

 mooted points, authenticated the testimony of accurate observers, 

 and lopped the hydra heads of many legends that had long abused 

 the popular intelligence. These notes, taken from my field diaries, 

 are not offered as containing much that is new, nor as a final word 

 on a subject long under discussion, but rather as the faithful 

 record of a quest pursued. 



Upper Peninsula, Huron Mountain, Michigan, April 7-13, 

 1910. After crawling some distance toward the log on which he 

 was strutting, I watched a cock Grouse drum at a distance of twenty 

 feet. When about to drum the feet were shifted uneasily for a 

 moment, as if to get a firmer grip of the log, the tail was spread 

 and held in a horizontal position. At the beginning of the first 

 wing beat the tail was dropped, and acted as a brace, across or 

 along the log, according to the way the bird was standing. There 

 were three quick preliminary wing beats, then the breast and neck 

 were swelled perceptibly, the feathers on the throat being "ruffed" 



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