128 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 



Canada grouse performs its drumming upon the trunk 

 of a standing tree of rather small size, preferably one 

 that is inclined from the perpendicular, and in the 

 following manner: Commencing near the base of 

 the tree selected, the bird flutters upward with some- 

 what slow progress, but rapidly beating wings, which 

 produce the drumming sound. Having thus ascended 

 fifteen or twenty feet, it glides quietly on wing to the 

 ground and repeats the maneuver. Favorite places 

 are resorted to habitually, and these drumming trees 

 are well known to observant woodsmen. I have seen 

 one that was so well worn upon the bark as to lead 

 to the belief that it had been used for this purpose 

 for many years. This tree was a spruce of six inches 

 diameter, with an inclination of about fifteen degrees 

 from the perpendicular, and was known to have been 

 used as a drumming tree for several seasons. The 

 upper surface and sides of the tree were so worn by 

 the feet and wings of the bird or birds using it for 

 drumming, that for a distance of twelve or fifteen feet 

 the bark had become quite smooth and red as if 

 rubbed." 



Major Bendire quotes Manly Hardy as saying : "My 

 father, who had opportunities to see them drumming, 

 told me they drum in the air while descending from a 

 tree. They would fly up on a tree and then start off 

 and drum on their way to the ground like a Quaker 

 grasshopper. When on the ground they scratch a great 

 deal more than other grouse do." 



