156 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING. 
it is always heard before rain, and they, as a conse- 
quence, look upon the grouse as the best of weather 
prophets. If they see the birds flying to the trees when 
the day is fine, they expect rain; but if they remam on 
the ground, though the sky should be threatening, fair 
weather is expected. When the males are drumming for 
the hens they often wage exceedingly severe battles, for 
one looks upon the other as a rival, whose presence 
should not be tolerated. A love-call is considered a 
challenge for the affection of some russet dame by these 
feathered knights, and on hearing it they answer in the 
most defiant manner, and boldly fly to meet the chal- 
lenger. Should they encounter each other, the battle is 
commenced. without any preliminaries, and fought with 
a pluck and energy worthy of game-cocks. The contest 
is much severer if a hen is a spectator than if she is not, 
for her presence seems to nerve them to the utmost limit 
of resistance; the result is that they fight until one is 
killed, or seeks safety in fhght. The victor then marches 
away with the feathered Helena, and breathes his notes 
of love into her ear, even before he has recovered from 
the exhaustion of the fierce struggle he waged for her. 
Bishop Esaias Tegner, the author of ‘‘ Frithiof’s 
Saga,” wrote a poem called ‘‘ Fogel-Leken,” or ‘‘ The 
Birds at Play,” which graphically describes the wooings 
and battles of the capercailzie during the pairing period, 
and as his description applies almost equally well to the 
ruffed grouse, I give the following selection from it, as 
translated by Lindholm: 
“ Hark ! now their love notes, saluting the day, 
Awaken the fair ones to innocent play, 
How tender those notes, full of longing so sweet, 
With which the fond singer his bride doth greet ! 
Now courting the coy one, who’s pretending to know 
But little, if aught, of his grief and his woe. 
List ! in how sad and how mournful a strain 
He telleth the heart’s oft-told legend again ; 
