292 Sporting Sketches 



this turkey, as is common to his kind, used to strut 

 and show off during the breeding season. I used to 

 stalk the old fool when he was in an ecstasy of 

 strutting, get astride him and hold him with my 

 arms about his broad breast. He seemed to be full 

 of air, like a huge bladder, and I'd slap him on crop 

 and sides as fast as I could till he'd let the air out of 

 his mouth with a rush. Then I'd get off him and 

 leg it for all I was worth to the nearest cover, for 

 he was a haughty old fowl and had impressive spurs. 

 The sound of my hands batting him was very like 

 the drumming of the grouse, and I suspect that the 

 grouse, a distant relative of the gobbler, fills certain 

 air-sacs with ozone, and beats himself with his wings 

 to produce his mufHed drumming. The well-known 

 clapping of the wings by domestic cocks and pigeons, 

 and the whirring of pheasants, merely are other forms 

 of the noisy wing-action. Those who have used 

 turkey-wing brushes about stove, or hearth, know 

 how soon the very strong feathers wear away, and 

 a grouse's much weaker wing never could stand the 

 harsher work of violent thumping against log, or 

 stone. Furthermore, a grouse can and does often 

 drum upon the ground, an ant-hill, and a mossy 

 knoll, not one of which would give forth sound in 

 response to a wing-stroke. The very flight of the 

 bird when alarmed proves what a row the wings 

 can produce working against air alone, and this noise 

 is under the bird's control, for both ruffed grouse and 

 Bob Whites have what may be termed the silent flush 

 and flight for ordinary occasions. Either can rise 

 when so inclined with no more noise than would be 

 made by any other round-winged bird of equal size. 



