216 RUFFED GROUSE. 



the ground, perches amongst the thickest parts of the foliage, and, assum- 

 ing at once an erect attitude, stands perfectly stiU, and remains silent un- 

 til all appearance of danger has vanished. If discovered when thus 

 perched, it is very easily shot. On rising from the ground, the bird 

 utters a cackling note repeated six or seven times, and before taking 

 wing emits a hsping sort of whistle, which seems as if produced by the 

 young of another bird, and is very remarkable. 



When the ground is covered with snow sufficiently soft to allow this 

 bird to conceal itself under it, it dives headlong into it with such force as 

 to form a hole several yards in length, re-appears at that distance, and 

 continues to elude the pursuit of the sportsman by flight. They are 

 sometimes caught while beneath the snow. Many of them are taken aUve 

 in trap boxes during winter, although the more common method of catch- 

 ing or rather destroying them is by setting dead falls with a figure-of-four 

 trigger. 



Early in April, the Ruffed Grouse begins to drum immediately after 

 dawn, and again towards the close of day. As the season advances, the 

 drumming is repeated more frequently at aU 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 drumming is performed in the follow- 

 ing manner. 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 it 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 moments elapse, when the bird draws 

 the whole of its feathers close to its body, and stretching 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 of the first strokes, 

 as to cause a tremor in the air not unlike the rumbUng of distant thunder. 

 This, kind reader, is the " drumming''' of the Pheasant. In perfectly 

 calm weather, it may be heard at the distance of two hundred yards, but 

 might be supposed to proceed from a much greater distance. The female, 

 which never drums, flies directly to the place where the male is thus en- 

 gaged, and, on approaching him, opens her wings before him, balances 

 her body to the right and left, and then receives his caresses. 



The same trunk is resorted to by the same birds during the season, un- 

 less they are frequently disturbed. These trunks are easily known by the 

 quantity of excrements and feathers about them. The males have the 



