386 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



V 



usually ovoidal in form, sometimes nearly rounded, and their 

 dimensions average about 1.65 by 1.20 inches : specimens 

 are occasionally found much larger than this size, and many 

 considerably smaller. In about fifty specimens before me, 

 collected perhaps in ten different States, about five are of a 

 yellowish-buff color, marked with numerous spots of brown ; 

 others are more yellowish, and have more obscure spots, 

 while the greater number have no markings at all. 



From several instances which have come to my knowl- 

 edge, I am inclined to think that the female Ruffed Grouse, 

 if persistently molested when nesting on the ground, avails 

 herself of the abandoned nest of a crow, or the shelter 

 afforded in the top of some tall broken trunk of a tree, 

 in which she deposits her eggs. Two of my collectors in 

 Northern Maine have sent me eggs which they positively 

 declared were found in a crow's nest in a high pine, but 

 which are undoubtedly of this species ; and recently I have 

 heard of another occurrence from my friend L. E. Rick- 

 secker, of Pennsylvania. The only satisfactory theory that 

 I can advance to account for these departures from the 

 usual habits of the Grouse is, that the birds had been much 

 disturbed, their eggs or young perhaps destroyed ; and as 

 they are often in the trees, and are expert climbers, they 

 laid their eggs in these lofty situations to secure protection 

 from their numerous foes below. 



During the season of incubation, the males congregate- 

 together and remain apart from the females, until the young 

 birds are nearly full-grown : they then join them, and remain 

 with them until the ensuing spring. 



Early in spring, the male begins " drumming: " this habit 

 is peculiar to this species, and is probably familiar to all 

 persons who have passed much of their time in the woods. 



I have heard this drumming as early as February, and as 

 late as September ; but usually it is not heard much before 

 the first of April. The bird resorts to a fallen trunk of a 

 tree or log, and, while strutting like the male Turkey, beats 



