254 
RUFFED GROUSE. 
woods, beyond reach of view, before it alights. With a good 
dog, however, they are easily found ; and at some times exhibit 
a singular degree of infatuation, by looking down from the 
branches where they sit, on the dog below, who, the more 
noise he keeps up, seems the more to confuse and stupify them, 
so that they may be shot down, one by one, till the whole are 
killed, without attempting to fly off. In such cases, those on 
the lower limbs must be taken first ; for, should the upper ones 
be first killed, in their fall they alarm those below, who imme- 
diately fly off. In deep snows they are usually taken in traps, 
commonly dead traps, supported by a figure 4 trigger. At 
this season, when suddenly alarmed, they frequently dive into 
the snow, particularly when it has newly fallen, and, coming 
out at a considerable distance, again take wing. They are 
at variance from that occasioned by ordinary flight, are produced by many 
birds ; particularly during the breeding season, when different motions are em- 
ployed, and it appears to me to be rather a consequence depending on the peculiar 
flight, than the flight employed to produce the sound as a love or other call. 
Such is the booming noise produced by Snipes in spring, always accompanied by 
the almost imperceptible motion of the wings in the very rapid descent of the 
bird. A somewhat similar sound is produced by the Lapwing, when flying near 
her nest or young, and is always heard during a rapid flight performed diago- 
nally downwards. The cock Pheasant produces a loud whir by a violent 
motion of his wings after calling. A very peculiar rustling is heard when the 
Peacock raises his train, and the cause, a rapid, trembling motion of the 
feathers, is easily perceived ; and the strut of the Turkey Cock is produced 
apparently by the rapid exertion of the muscles acting on the roots of the 
quills. 
Under this species may be mentioned the T. Sabinii of Douglas. It is 
so very closely allied, that Dr Richardson remarks, “ After a careful comparison 
of Mr Douglas’s T. Sabinii, deposited in the Edinburgh Museum, they 
appeared to me to differ in no respect from the young of T. umbellus 
The characters of T. Sabinii, given by Mr Douglas, are, — Rufus, nigro 
notatus ; dorso maculis cordiformibus, nucha alisque lineis ferrugineo-flovis ; 
abdomine albo brunneo fasciato ; rectricibus fasciatis, fascia subapicali lata 
nigra. 
Mr Douglas thinks that there is some difference between the specimens of 
T, umbellus, killed on the Rocky Mountains, and more northern parts, from 
those in the states of New York and Pennsylvania, and proposes, if they 
should be hereafter found distinct, that it should stand as T. umbelloides. — Ed. 
