
NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 105 
which keeps the specimen secure, and at the same time admits suflicient 
air for respiration. In this way I have preserved Geophili in the s 
phial in Juli for many months, and it is better than closing the coe 
withac 
my dear sir, I have now given you a pretty good list of my 
Serban but I would also, just add, that a collection of Scorpions and 
halangidz would be equally acceptable. Of these things, as well as of 
the Myriapods, I would suggest that the very smallest, as well as the very 
largest specimens of the same species, be collected and preserved in the 
me way in spirit. In all cases, if the weather. be warm, the spirit 
should be changed when the specimens have been in it for about a month, 
otherwise they may become rotten and unfit for dissection, 
With many thanks for your kindness, I remain, dear 
Yours, did lly, 
E. DouBLEDAY, Esq. GEORGE NEWPORT. 
ON THE DRUMMING OF THE RUFFED GROUSE.*—4A writer in ** Harper's 
Magazine" for October, in an article which he heads **Our neighbors the 
male nip beats his wings against his sides and the 7og with consider- 
able for 
Itisa teda thing that a writer eee seems to be familiar with birds 
Should make such a statement. He is not singular, however, in this mat- 
e € 
produce the hollow sound which the bird produces. I have not access to 
Audubon's works, and do not know his opinion. So good an observer as 
he was is not likely to be mistaken in the matter, and I should like to 
know his une ion.t 
Writer in Harper is mistaken when he says the grouse drums while 
Strutting, red a turkey. He stands perfectly still and erect, stretching 
himself as high as possible, and produces the drumming sound by striki ng 
This is the truth and the whole matter.— Dr. Rurus RAYMOND, 
ville. Ind. 


emare to the Smithsonian Institution. 
f Audubon, 216 of Vol. I of his Ornithological Biography, says, “The drumming is 
Performed in ge following manner: The male bird, standing erect on a prostrate decayed 
trunk, raises the feathers of its body in the manner of a turkey-cock, draws its head towards 
its tail, erecting the feathers of the latter at the same time, me raising = ie around the 




neck, suffers its wings to droo 1 when the 
p. and struts about on the log. 
bird draws the wi hers elose to its body, and stretching Heel On, beats its sides 
With its wings, in the such rapidity of 
Motion, after a few of the first s strokes, as t in th unlike the vk 
9f distant thunder," 
AMER, an reg Ton HI. 14 

