The Ruffed Grouse 375 



had met the fate I had feared for him. Evidently he had not 

 seen the fox or bird of prey until it had actually pounced on him. As 

 to whether or not he has left some lusty heir to inherit his well-worn 

 log I can not now tell for certain. However, another year has 

 nearly rolled around. It is drumming-time again. For a week or 

 more logs Nos. 1 and 2 have again been in use. But there is as yet 

 no drummer on log No. 3. 



Why the Grouse Drums. Now, why does the Ruffed Grouse 

 drum? What does the drumming mean? I believe with those who 

 think the drumming closely corresponds to the singing of other 

 birds, — that it is just as much, and no more, a nuptial perform- 

 ance. Although heard occasionally at various times throughout the 

 year, it chiefly coincides with the mating and nesting season. 

 Through August, when song birds are particularly silent and retir- 

 ing, there is almost no drumming to be heard in the woods. As 

 autumn comes on the drumming breaks out again ; so does the sing- 

 ing of orioles, vireos, sparrows and . various other birds which 

 regularly have a post-nuptial song season. But I have rarely heard 

 a grouse drum in winter. At any rate the broad fact remains ; 

 springtime, mating time, nesting time — is the time of the male 

 bird chorus and the time when the cock grouse drums with daily 

 regularity and hour-long persistence. The bloodroot, hepatica, 

 anemone and trillium, now blooming, form the proper setting for 

 the drumming log (figure 120). The time of these flowers is the 

 time of the birds' spring choral. And how lacking would be the 

 concert without that strangely haunting, bewitching sound, — the 

 most potent in all nature to revivify a thousand memories of our 

 woods in spring,— the muffled drum of the Ruffed Grouse ! 



The Human Appeal of the Drumming. It is early in April 

 that this new voice of the woods begins to be regularly heard. To 

 those who have long been familiar with the sound it means the bab- 

 bling of trout streams, the drowsy humming of the earliest bees, 

 hawks tracing out anew their circles in the sky, and a hundred like 

 signs of the season. Other birds may come to you with their songs ; 

 often they come at unexpected and inauspicious times and places. 

 To hear the Ruffed Grouse beat his " muffled drum " you must 

 visit the stilly wood where he has secluded himself (figure 122). 

 So it is that every charm which goes to make up the typical spring- 

 time woods comes crowding back with overpowering associations 

 whenever the initiated hear again that magic sound; — the seclusion, 

 the still air. the gentle rustle more potent than silence for rest and 

 " pleasure in the pathless woods " ; the dry leaves turned by grow- 

 ing green things ; the calm, the serenity of it all ; and then the drum, 

 " thum — thum — thum — thm — thm — thm-thm-m-m-m-m-m-m 

 mmmmm " ; the drum that beats for peace ! Listen to that exhilarat- 

 ing tatoo ; listen to that echo of your own throbbing heart. 



