100 



AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 



Photo by C. F. Hodge. 



Grouse Drumming. 



hope we may all hear it more often rather than have our woods stilled for- 

 ever by its loss. 



Audubon told us how the grouse drums over sixty years ago^ but not many 

 people seem to have heard his story about it<, and^ perhaps, some who read 

 it did not believe that Audubon had seen it just right. He claimed that the 

 bird stood up straight and made the sound by striking his sides with the 

 wings — at first slowly and then more rapidly, until the beats fused into a 

 continuous "roll of muffled thunder." The Indians had, however, named the 

 ruffed grouse the "carpenter bird," because they thought he "pounded on a 

 log." I suppose they told the Pilgrim Fathers that the grouse drummed by 

 pounding on a log, and they told all their boys and girls the same story, 

 and when a story gets started, it is hard to stop; and so, even yet, although 



