BIRDS OF NEW YORK 369 



■different localities, thus maintaining the vigor of the breed. I have seen 

 grouse in the North Woods which were as heedless of man's presence as if 

 they had been reared in a barnyard and when flushed would alight in the 

 nearest tree and almost allow themselves to be knocked off with sticks. 

 The so called "crazy grouse," like these birds, having entered surrotindings 

 with which they are wholly unfamiliar, have not yet adapted themselves 

 to the new conditions. 



Habits. Early in spring the cock grouse begins to strut and drum on 

 some chosen log or mossy mound. When strutting he raises and spreads 

 his ruff until it forms a circle about his head, and spreads his magnificent 

 tail- until it forms a semicircle above his back, then with drooping wings, 

 he parades up and down his drumming log with all the conceit of a diminu- 

 tive turkey cock. When he has displayed his charms for some time, 

 without the expected appearance of an appreciative audience, he commences 

 to drum, or, as in the case which I witnessed in the Upper Ausable swamp, 

 he sits moping on the log, as if sleepy, or waiting, or wearied from his exer- 

 tions, but presently becomes alert, raises his head, drops his tail, straightens 

 his wings, fluffs out his breast feathers, and begins to beat the air with his 

 wings, slowly at first, but with ever increasing rapidity, tmtil there is 

 visible only a mazy blur, extending from a horizontal to a vertical position 

 at the bird's side, the wings evidently not striking each other or the log on 

 which he stands, but as Professor Hodge suggests, the loose feathers of the 

 sides and flanks may act as a pillow or resonance box to increase the hollow 

 sound. The sound of the drtimming carries a long distance through the 

 forest and bears remarkable resemblance to the starting of an automobile 

 engine when heard at a distance, beginning with two or three slow resonant 

 thumps and rapidly increasing in speed till it becomes a continuous whirr. 

 This is the signal to the hen that her lord is at the accustomed rendezvous. 

 But the drijmming is not heard merely in the springtime. Mr Scott Brown 

 of St Huberts, informs me that he has heard it nearly every month in the 

 year. In midsummer when the birds are molting, they rarely if ever 

 drum, and in midwinter it is an unaccustomed sound, but in the sunny 

 -days of the fall, it is almost as familiar a woodland sound as in the spring- 



