326 Tuttle, Drumming of the Ruffed Grouse. [Sidy 



the wrong way, the ruffs were slightly distended, and the first 

 loud wing beat was begun. After drumming the tail was held 

 erect for a moment and the ruffs were spread — a beautiful pose. 



On moving my hand from behind the stump where I was con- 

 cealed, he threw up his ruffs, spread his tail into a fan, puffed out 

 his breast, trailed his wings, and with lowered crest walked up the 

 log, turning and hissing. Afterwards he walked off the log and 

 began feeding. 



I watched this bird and one other drum more than a dozen 

 times. There were variations in the strutting and in the raising 

 or lowering of the crest, but otherwise the performances were 

 identical. In this region drumming cocks were numerous, the 

 logs on which they drummed being in most cases not ten feet off 

 the trails. The birds were tame and easily approached. 



Simsbury, Connecticut, April 23-24, 1910. I spent the night 

 of the twenty-third and morning of the twenty-fourth on the ground 

 about one hundred yards from a well used drum log. I had set 

 up my camera during the late afternoon, and because the bird 

 was too shy to be approached by crawling, I adopted the expedient 

 of sleeping at the end of my shutter thread. 



The Grouse drummed from one-fifteen in the morning till after 

 two o'clock, when I went to sleep, and was still drumming at three 

 minute intervals when I woke at four. He may have rested while 

 I slept, but I woke to the sound of his drumming. He drummed 

 twelve times in thirty minutes, from one-fifteen to one -forty-five. 

 It was rather weird to hear a Grouse drumming in the dark. A 

 bright moon was shining, but the air was misty. A Whippoorwill 

 sang. I woke again at six o'clock, but the Grouse had gone. 



Simsbury, May, 1910. During May in the woods beyond the 

 hill swamp I crawled to the upturned end of a tree behind which a 

 Grouse was drumming. After the bird had drummed three times 

 I ventured to peek around the earthwork and was surprised to 

 find the bird's tail braced across the log about ten inches from my 

 face. The temptation to grab it and tweak out a feather almost 

 overcame me with laughter, but I was eager to hear the bird drum 

 again. I was disappointed at being behind him, where I could 

 not watch his wings and breast, but it was obvious that this was 

 the only position where I could hope to remain unseen. As it 



