THE NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY. 83 



Plains. Of late years the range has been gradually extended 

 westward along the lines of railroads, and it has been introduced 

 into many of the western states, including California, Oregon 

 and Washington. 



Genus BONASA Stephens, 1819. 



Bonasa umbellus (Linnaeus). Buffed Grouse. 



Tetrao umbellus LINNAEUS, S. N., ed. 12, I, 1766, 275. 

 Bonasa umbellus STEPHENS, Gen. Zool., XI, 1819, 300. 

 Popular synonyms: PABTBIDGE. RUFFLED GROUSE. PHEASANT. 

 DRUMMING GBOUSE. 



In 1876, when Mr. E. W. Nelson prepared his report* on 

 the Birds of Northeastern Illinois, and for many years thereafter, 

 this species was a common resident, frequenting the timbered 

 sections of our area. They are still occasionally met with in 

 Lake County, Indiana. Major Bendire quotes the following 

 observations of Mr. Manly Hardy, of Brewer, Maine, as a 

 reliable description of the method of drumming of the Ruffed 

 Grouse: "The cock Grouse usually selects a mossy log, near 

 some open hedge, clearing or wood-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 wings, steps with a jerking motion along the log 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 wings 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 of alarm is 

 discovered, he repeats the process." 



In 1886, while collecting on the summit of the Alleghanies 

 near Eagle rock, five miles from Deer Park, Maryland, I flushed 

 a whip-poor-will at the base of a large fallen log which was 

 almost entirely hidden from sight among the rhododendron 

 bushes. As I was examining the nest of the whip-poor-will, it 

 was my good fortune to hear the soft call of a hen Ruffed 

 Grouse and then a note which I did not recognize as the drum- 

 ming of the male, as it was softer and seemed quite unlike the 

 sound of the drumming when heard at a distance. I remained 



*Bull. of the Essex Institute, Vol. VIII, 1876, 121. 



