THE RUFFED GROUSE. 



{Bonus a umbellus.) 



When soft May breezes fan the early woods, 

 And with her magic wand the blue-ey'd spring 

 Quickens the swelHng blossoms and the buds, 

 Then forth the russet partridge leads her brood, 

 While on the fallen tree-trunk drums her mate. 



— Isaac McLellan, "Nature's Invitation." 



While the Ruffed Grouse is called 

 Partridge in eastern states, and Pheas- 

 ant further west, and in the south, it is, 

 after all, simply a grouse, for the part- 

 ridge and pheasants are birds of the 

 Old World. It may be considered a 

 permanent though ro\ing resident nearly 

 throughout its range, which extends 

 east of Minnesota, from southern Can- 

 ada southward in the mountain regions 

 to northern Georgia, Mississippi and 

 Arkansas. It is called the Ruffed 

 Grouse because of its neck ruff of long 

 and broad, soft, glossy black feathers. 

 This ruff is an excellent mark of iden- 

 tification, especially of the male bird. 

 The ruff of the female is much smaller 

 or may be wanting, and it is also of a 

 duller color. While other grouse may 

 have a neck appendage of feathers, none 

 have the ruff of the bird which we 

 illustrate. The interesting drumming 

 of the Ruffed Grouse has been attrib- 

 uted tO' various causes and some of 

 the earlier writers attributed it to a 

 vocal effort. As the noise produced oy 

 the drumming resembled the bellowing 

 of a bull, these birds were given the 

 generic name Bonasa, from the Greek 

 word Bonasos, a bison. Its specific 

 name umbellus refers to the umbrella- 

 like ruff on its neck. 



There are few sounds in nature that 

 are more characteristic than that of the 

 drumming of the Ruffed Grouse, yet it 

 is a familiar sound to a comparatively 

 few observers of bird-life. We quote 

 the words of Mr. Ernest E. Thompson 

 for there is no better description. He 



says : 'This loud tattoo begins with the 

 measured thump of the big drum, then 

 gradually changes and dies away in the 

 rumble of the kettle-drum. It may be 



briefly presented thus: Thump 



thump — thump — thump, thump, thump; 

 thump-rvip rup rup rup r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r. 

 The sound is produced by the male bird 

 beating the air with his wings as he 

 stands firmly braced on some favorite 

 low perch." It is the call of the male to 

 the female. *'An announcement that he 

 is at the old rendezvous — a rendezvous 

 that has perhaps served them for more 

 than one season, and a place that in 

 time becomes so fraught with delightful 

 associations that even in autumn or 

 winter the male, when he finds himselt 

 in the vicinity, can not resist the tempta- 

 tion to mount his wonted perch and 

 vent his feelings in the rolling drum- 

 beat that was in springtime his song ot 

 love." 



While it is the belief of most of the 

 ornithologists of the present day that 

 the drumming sound is produced by 

 the rapid beating of the air with the 

 wings, there are, and have been, other 

 theories as to the cause of the sound. 

 Some say that the Grouse produces 

 the sound by striking its wings together 

 over its back ; others say that it strikes 

 the sides of its body and still others, 

 among them most woodsmen, that it 

 strikes the log upon which it is perched. 

 Whatever the cause of the sounds, the 

 wings are moved slowly at first and the 

 speed is gradually increased until such 

 rapid movement is obtained that the eye 



