2i 4 A SPORTING PARADISE 



drum immediately after dawn, and again towards 

 the close of day. As the season advances, the 

 drumming is repeated more frequently at all hours 

 of the day, and where these birds are abundant 

 this curious sound is heard from all parts of the 

 woods in which they reside. The male bird, 

 standing erect on a prostrate decayed trunk, raises 

 the feathers of its body, in the manner of a 

 turkey-cock, draws its head towards its tail, 

 erecting the feathers of the latter at the same 

 time, and raising its ruff around the neck, suffers 

 its wings to droop and struts about on the log. 

 A few minutes elapse, when the bird draws the 

 whole of its feathers close to its body, and stretch- 

 ing itself out, beats its sides with its wings in the 

 manner of the domestic cock, but more loudly, 

 and with such rapidity of motion, after a few 

 strokes, as to cause a tremor in the air not unlike 

 the rumbling of distant thunder. In perfectly 

 calm weather it may be heard at the distance of 

 two hundred yards." 



The female, which never drums, flies directly 

 to the place where the male is thus engaged, and, 

 on approaching him, opens her wings, balances 

 her body to the right and left, and then receives 

 his caresses. 



