RUFFED GROUSE 51 



den rise. Or one might come upon a rounded 

 hollow beside a log where the wild hen had been 

 taking a dust bath; or would hear, from the 

 dense laurel, the male's remarkable drumming, 

 — thump, thump, thump, thump-thump-thump 

 flllllump. This sound is produced by striking the 

 air with the short, stiff, concave wings, much as 

 a rooster flaps his wings before crowing. Al- 

 though a stump or log is almost always chosen 

 for a drumming-place, the w x ood is not struck 

 during this performance, neither is the bird's 

 own body. Like the hollow noise made by the 

 Mghthawk in diving through the air, the boom 

 or thump is produced by the wings alone. 



But rare indeed is the luck of seeing or even 

 hearing a Grouse at the present day. This 

 superb game bird is the particular delight of 

 hunters; and as it relies mostly on protective 

 coloring for safety and cannot make long flights, 

 but in the hunter's phraseology "lies well to a 

 dog," most records of this Grouse over its entire 

 range read "formerly very common," — a tragic 

 phrase occurring all too often in the history of 

 American bird life. 



This bird is miscalled "pheasant" through 

 much of its territory, and in New England is 

 known as "partridge." 



The nest, under a brushpile or at the base of 

 a tree, is very much like a small domestic hen's, 



