THE RUFFED-GROUSE 89 



ces about on his favorite drumming-log, stump, or stone, 

 he makes a loud noise which resembles somewhat the 

 roll of a drum. It begins with several low thumps, 

 and these are slow and measured, but they increase 

 rapidly in force and frequency until the deep noise is 

 produced which can be heard for a mile in the woods. 

 The sound, which is ventriloquial in character, was sup- 

 posed formerly to be vocal and many so describe it. 

 Enough has been written on the subject to fill a book 

 of large size. An abstract of the lore on this subject 

 will be found in my former work, " The True Game 

 Birds." Many ornithologists follow Audubon in de- 

 scribing the drumming noise as being made with the 

 wings striking the body, but it seems from later obser- 

 vations that the wings of the bird smite nothing but 

 the air — "not even his own proud breast." This 

 grouse was given its technical name bonasa, since the 

 noise was supposed to be vocal and to resemble the 

 bellowing of the bull. 



Ruffed-grouse are distributed everywhere in the 

 woods from New England and Eastern Canada to 

 Oregon and south to Georgia, Mississippi, and Arkan- 

 sas. They prefer forests of large extent, since they are 

 great wanderers afoot, and are more often found in the 

 hills and mountains in the East, but they were also 

 very abundant in the oak forests of Northern Indiana 

 and Illinois, and are to-day abundant in many places 

 in Michigan, Minnesota, in the Rocky Mountain re- 

 gion, and the forests of Oregon. The flesh of this 

 grouse is white and delicious. As an object of pur- 

 suit he is now far more difficult than the prairie- 

 grouse or sharp-tailed-grouse. To write another equa- 



