BIRD NOTES. 85 
placed log his tattoo can be heard a mle.” Since, however, it 
has been repeatedly discovered that the mysterious resonant flut- 
ter is accomplished equally as well upon a rock, or even upon the 
bare ground, the “drumming-log” theory has lost favor. Now ap- 
pears a conservative coterie who would seem desirous of concili- 
ating the disputants, while determined to be on the winning side 
anyhow; Brewer, for instance, who claims that the bird “ beats 
its sides and the log” simultaneously, a belief which is shared 
by Samuels and many followers. 
Against this I would oppose the witness of another unprofes- 
sional but equally close observer, the writer, in truth, who deposes 
and says that the bird does nothing of the kind; that in the one 
instance, though brief, where its movements were observed by 
him, the clearly defined limit of the visible whir of the wings 
seen from behind demonstrated that no feather of the bird’s wing 
touched the body or the log upon which the bird stood; while, 
on the other hand, the feathery halo almost merged over the 
back, suggesting a new possibility in the resonant source. 
Not to be outdone by the opposing diplomatists, here we find 
another class who would seem to rest their case in the artful non- 
committal of Wilson, claiming to connect his negative suggestion 
above with the positive statement that the bird “strikes nothing 
but the azn” 
Following the suggestion intimated from my own observation 
opens up a new line of investigation. Here is the testimony of 
Wilson Flagg, for instance: “ Whenever I have gained sight of a 
partridge in the act of drumming, he seemed to elevate his wings 
and strike them together over his back, increasing the rapidity of 
the strokes,” etc. 
But Thoreau long anticipated him, as witness the following 
from his journal for the year 1855, in which he chronicles the 
discovery of a neighbor who was wont to prove his assertions: 
“ He had seen a partridge drum standing on a wall; said it stood 
very upright, and produced the sound by striking its wings to- 
gether dchind its back, as a cock often does, but did not strike 
the wall or its body. This he is sure of, and declares that he 
