THIS KUFFED GROUSE. 61 



Mr. Manly I lardy, of Brewer, Maine, well known as a reliable student of 

 nature and a careful observer, describes the dramming as follows: 



"The cock Grouse usually selects a mossy log, near some open hed^-i . 

 clearing, or woods road, and partly screened by bushes, where he can see and 

 not be seen. When about to drum he erects his neck feathers, spreads his tail, 

 and, with drooping 1 wings, steps with a jerking motion along the log for some 

 distance each way from his drumming place, walking back and forth several 

 times and looking sharply in every direction; then, standing crosswise, he 

 stretches himself to his fullest height and delivers the blows with his win^s 

 fully upon his sides, his wings being several inches clear from the log. After 

 drumming he settles quietly down into a sitting posture, and remains silently 

 listening for five or ten minutes, when, if no cause for alarm is discovered, he 

 repeats the process." 



The drumming place is resorted to by the male from year to year. It 

 may be a log, a rock, an old stump, or when such are not available, a small 

 hillock is made to answer the purpose equally as well. While this drumming 

 can not be considered a love note, as it may be heard almost every month in 

 the year, and sometimes in the night as well as in the daytime, yet it must 

 undoubtedly have some attraction for the female, and I think is performed 

 as a sign of bodily vigor and to notify her of his whereabouts. Occasion- 

 ally it causes a jealous rival to put in an appearance also, when a rough- 

 and-tumble fight ensues. The female is seldom seen near the drumming 

 place. 



No game bird is more coui'ageous than the Ruffed Grouse in the defense 

 of its young; and the various tactics made use of, such as feigning injury, 

 and fluttering along the ground just out of reach, are well known and often 

 successful. 



By many persons the Ruffed Grouse is considered polygamous, and 

 while I can not actually disprove this assertion I doubt it very much. 



The nest, like that of all the Grouse family, consists of a slight hollow 

 scratched out at the base of a standing tree, a rock, under or alongside an 

 old log, the fallen top of a tree, a brush pile, an old fence comer, or in the 

 tangled undergrowth and thickets near a stream. Usually it is well and 

 securely hidden, and placed in a secluded locality. Now and then, how- 

 ever, a nest will be found in quite an exposed and unlikely place, without 

 any pretense at concealment. I have a photograph of such a one before 

 me now, showing the bird on the nest. It was placed amongst a lot of fallen 

 le;i\es, alongside the trunk of a tree, apparently a spruce, and close to a 

 fence, in quite an open place. 



Mr. Lynds Jones, of Grinnell, Iowa, found a nest of the Ruffed Grouse 

 in a hollow stump, and Mr. C. M. Jones, of Eastford, Connecticut, found one 

 in a swamj), on a little cradle knoll, surrounded by water. Mr. William X. 

 Colton, of Biddeford, Maine, records a nest found between the stems of three 

 young birches, fully 8 inches from the ground. 



