Lake Umbagog.
1909
June 12 [June 12, 1909]
(No 5)  
  I have queried the Spruce Partridge because I did
not see it and am not sure that the sound I heard was
really made by this species. At first I took it to be
the drumming of a Ruffed Grouse in the distance but
after I reached the outskirts of the dense cedar swamp,
whence it came, apparently from within thirty or forty
yards of me, I remembered the descriptions of the
drumming of the Spruce Partridge given me by G[?] Stone
and others among the earlier guides of this region and
what they had described seemed to me the very sound I
was now listening to. It was not unlike the terminal
roll of the Ruffed Grouse but less resonant and more
like the heavy fluttering of wings. There were no peculiar [?],
wide-spread, throbbing beats but simply one even, uniform
fluttering, very distinct at probably 50 yards. I heard it
repeated 7 or 8 times at intervals of a minute or two each.
I was unable to locate the bird exactly & failed to find it afterwards.