1 62 The Grouse Family 



there study birds at his leisure, and learn much 

 of their curious ways during the love-making sea- 

 son. Then the old males are full of fire, and their 

 booming comes to the ear like the mufHed lowing 

 of distant herds of cattle. Through the glass one 

 can follow every move of the assembled males, 

 note the absurd posturing of love's minuet, the 

 frenzied strutting, and the often furious fight- 

 ing. The male has upon either side of his neck 

 a yellow sac, which roughly resembles the half of 

 an orange. These he can inflate to an enormous 

 size, and collapse them at will, and during the 

 emptying of these sacs is produced the booming 

 sound. While strutting the bird presents an 

 extraordinary appearance. The sacs are inflated 

 until they suggest the rubber bladder toy of the 

 children ; the bird's head almost disappears be- 

 tween them, while their tremendous enlargement 

 forces forward the long winglike feathers of the 

 neck until they project above the head almost to 

 the point of meeting. With the sacs fully in- 

 flated, the neck appears to be as large as the 

 body, while the hornlike projected feathers lend 

 an uncanny effect which, to say the least, is start- 

 ling, if not rather devilish. The short tail, fully 

 spread, is raised fanlike above the back, while the 

 wings are lowered like those of a strutting gobbler 

 until the primaries scrape the ground. The strut- 

 ting is, of course, intended to impress the onlook- 



