Vol 'lfl9 XVI ] Tuttle, Drumming of the Ruffed Grouse. 333 



space. He then shook himself and hopped off the log again, mak- 

 ing his way rather noisily through the woods. 



May 12. I moved the blind to within six feet of the drum log. 

 If it is too close to be useful for photography, I shall at least have 

 had the experience of watching a Grouse drum at that range. 



May 13. I arrived in the blind at two-forty-five. The Grouse 

 was heard walking about at four and reconnoitred till four-thirty. 

 He then came to the log, manifesting an unusual degree of caution 

 and showed an attitude of great alarm after drumming once, 

 crouching in an attempt to see through the peep hole of the blind. 

 He then drummed again. At five-thirty-five I attempted my 

 first picture, but the shutter thread had become tangled with one 

 of the twigs on the top of the blind, and the Grouse hearing the 

 noise and seeing the movement, instantly stopped drumming and 

 sneaked off the log. I waited till seven, hoping that he would 

 return, which he did. I took one picture with the camera in front 

 at one hundreth of a second. The light was very dull, but I 

 thought it was worth the chance. I tried again to pull the other 

 shutter off, without success. The last time that the Grouse 

 drummed he failed to get a good grip on the log, with the amusing 

 result that the finale of the roll shifted him off his stance and 

 whirled him half way around. (The picture was a bad failure, the 

 plate being fogged and the exposure much too fast. It did show 

 that one hundreth part of a second was fast enough to catch the 

 moving wings.) 



May 15. Dawn was not yet gray in the east when I stumbled 

 through the second growth in the darkness and sought my green 

 denim bush. The hour was two-fifty. The Grouse was more 

 suspicious than usual and did not come to the log till four-forty. 

 He drummed once, then left the log and came toward the blind. 

 After walking some ten feet behind the blind, he returned to the 

 log and drummed. An interval, then he drummed again. He was 

 uneasy however, and soon dropped off the log, and passing close 

 to the blind, departed to the rear. After ten minutes he began 

 drumming on a log twenty yards to the east. I think the blind's 

 proximity to the log was too great an obstacle, and in the after- 

 noon I moved it back to a position twenty feet away. 



May 16. I reached the blind at two-fifty. The Grouse spent 



