The Drumming of the Ruffed Grouse 



247 



and a modest self-satisfaction. The next instant he turns crossways of the log,, 

 the head is raised, the feathers of the neck and the black ruff expanded by the 

 same act, the tail is spread, and at the same time the wings beat the air three 

 or four clearly distinct times with a muffled whir at each beat — such is the force 

 of the stroke— and then hang straight down for an instant, as also between the 

 strokes just described. Now begins the part of the drumming which is so familiar 

 to many as a distant rumble and characteristic wood sound. As the interval 

 between the strokes, which at first is about a second, gradually shortens the bird 

 assumes a more and more horizontal position until at the end, when the drumming 



DRUMMING RUFFED GROUSE 

 Enlargement of the following photograph retouched by E. J. Sawyer 



has become one prolonged whir of the constantly moving wings, the head sets- 

 down close to the shoulders. In the latter part of the drumming the outline 

 of the wings is entirely lost in a gray haze which, however, serves to show the 

 extent of their motion; they are held just free from the sides and fluttered rather 

 than flapped at the close of the act. In the first part of the drumming it may 

 easily be observed that the tips of the wings are brought as far forward as the 

 feet and backward about to a hor zontal position. The tail lays flat on the log. 

 if the latter is large. The only device I can think of which seems calculated 

 closely to imitate the rapid drumming is a soft, yet solid, rubber ball dropped 

 on the top of a velvet-covered wooden vessel. I have often compared the tone- 



