A LABRADOR SPRING 
melts, to the lower grounds and prepare for the 
nuptial season. About the roth of April they 
may be heard croaking or barking on all sides. 
A male selects a favourable tract of territory 
for the location of the nest, and endeavours to 
induce a female to resort to that place. He 
usually selects the highest portion of the tract, 
whence he launches into the air uttering a bark- 
ing sound of nearly a dozen separate notes, 
thence sails or flutters in a circle to alight at the 
same place whence he started, or to alight on 
another high place, from which he repeats 
the act while flying to his former place. Imme- 
diately on alighting, he utters a sound similar 
to the Indian word chit-xwan (what is it?) and 
repeats it several times, and in the course of 
a few minutes again launches in the air.”’ 
The second stage in the evolution of the 
drumming performance is illustrated by the 
Canada grouse or spruce partridge, who has 
developed the wing music to such an extent 
that he has given up the vocal music. The 
wing music, however, appears to be still some- 
what dependent on flight and has not advanced 
to the stage seen in the ruffed grouse, where the 
wing music has become a performance in itself 
100 
