270 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 



pulse that enables it to sail long distances, when the 

 wings are held stiffly expanded to their full extent, 

 somewhat decurved, and with the points of the quill 

 feathers separated. The bird's voice is highly char- 

 acteristic. It is so almost invariably uttered during 

 flight, at particular moments with reference to the de- 

 livery of the wing strokes, that for some time after my 

 first acquaintance with the birds I was in doubt whether 

 the sound were mechanical or vocal ; nor was the un- 

 certainty removed until I had heard it from the birds 

 at rest. The ordinary note of alarm is almost invaria- 

 bly sounded just before the bird takes wing, whether 

 from the ground or from a tree, and is usually repeated 

 with each succeeding set of wing-beats, seeming to be 

 jerked out of the bird by its muscular efforts. But we 

 hear it also when, the bird being at rest, it becomes 

 alarmed, yet not sufficiently to fly away; and when a 

 bird is passing at full speed, sufficiently near, we may 

 clearly distinguish the mechanical whirring sound of 

 its wings, as well as, sometimes, the creaking rustle of 

 its tail feathers as it turns its flight. When roosting 

 at ease among the trees, and probably at other times, 

 the grouse have a different set of notes a sociable 

 cackling or clucking, with which they entertain each 

 other. 



"In conversation with Captain Hartley, of the 

 Twenty-second Regiment, an accomplished sportsman, 

 well acquainted with the ways of our game birds, I 

 was informed of an interesting point of difference in 

 the habits of this bird and the pinnated grouse. In 



