BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 161 
she will bound up with a whirl, and putting a tree between 
herself and the invader, flies half a mile away before alight- 
ing on the limb of a tree in safety. 
Every chick will follow her the next day after the last one 
is out of the shell, and they have all become nearly full grown 
before the male resumes his place at the head of the family. 
The covey remain together until pairing time in the next 
spring when all the members are supposed to pair and set up 
for themselves. ; 
After the most careful observations I am entirely unable to 
decide how the sound of the drumming is produced. Like the 
question how a bird flies, the answer is yet in the shadowy 
distance if it has itself ever taken wing yet. I have heard all 
of the arguments pro and con, and know from personal obser- 
vation that not one of them will ‘‘hold water.” Yet it seems 
strange that phenomena so obvious to both the senses of 
hearing and seeing and under the observation of so many 
critical observers cannot be explained unanswerably. 
It is a very universally distributed species, though less 
abundant in those portions of the State that are occupied by 
the Canada Grouse.* Everywhere else, as above intimated, 
where the hunters have not ruthlessly ‘‘cleaned it out,” (to 
use their own expressive language,) the Ruffed Grouse is 
abundant in its characteristic haunts. 
From the southern line of the state to the Lake of the Woods 
in the extreme north, I have the most reliable reports of the 
species. ** 
Its drumming has been heard in Fillmore county as early as 
the 28th of March, and in Hennepin county on the first of 
April, from which I infer that the nesting may in some cases 
be earlier than above given. Their patent diet of seeds, ber- 
ries, grapes, and insects in summer, and ‘‘the leaves of ever- 
greens” in winter needs no repetition, but I have nowhere seen 
any mention of the buds of the ironwood, (Ostrya virginica), 
which constitutes almost their exclusive food in winter here. 
Their general habits otherwise do not differ from those of the 
species in other sections of its distribution. Farmers would 
think better of them after* examining the contents of the 
stomachs of as large a number as I have at various seasons of 
the year. They are as partial to most species of insects as are 
domestic fowls. 
*F. L. Washburn’s Red River Valley, Thief River, snd Mille Lacs Rep. 
**Dr. Hvoslef and Kennicott’s Lake of the Woods Rep. 
