. DRUMMmG OF THE RUFFED GROUSE. 
p-tutf. 
Washington, D. C. 
Editoe American Field :— I am truly gratified to note 
that some of your more recent correspondents are getting 
down toward a common sense view of the drumming of the 
ruffed grouse, for really the explanations of some of your 
earlier correspondents upon this subject were so at variance 
with my experience that I have hesitated to cross lances 
with them. I have grown a little bolder and now ask per- 
mission to dip my spoon in the soup. I do not claim to 
know it all, but I am no novice, having been hunting more 
than thirty-five years, and in twenty-eight states and some 
territories of this country. I have hunted every game ani- 
mal from the squirrel to the buffalo, as well as every game 
bird from the reed bird to the wild turkey, the noblest, 
gamiest and wariest bird that runs the woods. 
I have hunted the ruffed grouse from boyhood, and have 
rambled the woods with my father in quest of them, and 
have run with boyish glee to retrieve them when he would 
score a kill. I have shot them on the wing, in trees while 
eating buds and berries, and on their drumming logs. I 
have spent hours trying to determine their course and dis- 
tance when I would hear the wonderfully deceiving fuff— 
fuff-fuff, Some times it would seem like it might be sev- 
eral hundred yards away, when, suddenly, the bird would 
spring from his log not twenty yards distant and, with his 
peculiar “ cluck,” pass in an instant out of sight and away 
from shot, into the tangled mass of brush and vines with 
which the drumming log is usually surrounded. The fact 
of his being scared from his log once or twice does not cause 
him to abandon it ; he is quite certain to be there the next 
day. A number of times in my life I have taken advantage 
of this knowledge and prepared a way of approach by 
which I crawled within shooting distance next day, and 
bagged the game. In this way I have crept up to within 
less than one rod of two— only two — and with breathless 
silence and stillness, watched their every movement while 
drumming. From this experience I believe I can state it as 
a fact that they do not drum on the log, nor do they drum 
on their breasts— that is, the fufflug sound is not produced 
by their wings striking the log or the breast, nor is it pro- 
duced in the throat of the bird. Do not be startled, gentle 
sportsman, at this assertion, if it is at variance with so many ' 
opinions heretofore expressed in the American Field, My 
experience Is, and I know whereof I speak when I say it, 
the bird, when drumming, stands squarely erect, head up, 
and gamy appearance, and the sound is produced by the im- 
measurably rapid vibrations or oscillations of the wings, 
which causes a concurrent vibration or concussion of the 
air. This produces the drumming, fufiing sound, and the 
whole story is told. 
In drumming, the bird no more beats his bre^gt with his 
wing s than he does, when, ,^c ay^ ; ^, he sp rings from lys log 
and takes his flight. At the moment he takes wing the same 
vibration and concussion in the air and, consequently, the 
same sound, is produced. It is recognized in the rise of the 
quail and the pinnated grouse as well. The humming bird, 
darting from one flower to another with the rapidity of an 
arrow, as he stops to extract their sweets, produces, in min- 
iature, the drumming sound of the ruffed grouse. Who 
dares to assert that the little fellow is pounding his breast 
with his wings to produce the sound ? No, it is simply the 
effects of the incalculably rapid movement of his wings and 
the consequent vibration and concussion of the atmosphere. 
The same sound is produced, in a measure, by the violent 
rotary motion of the old grandmamma’s spinning wheel, and 
the boy swinging his paddle toy, with the string, rapidly 
round his head. 
Where a bird depends almost wholly upon its wings for 
safety from danger, as the ruffed grouse does, nature cer- 
tainly would not implant in him a disposition to disable 
them by pounding on a log and thus Jeopardizing his life 
when the enemy comes. I have killed quite a number of 
them in days gone by and never yet saw one with wing 
feathers injured by strutting or drumming. Jackalo. 
Pittsburgh, Pa. 
Editor American Field: — Although the subject of the 
drumming of the ruffed grouse has, perhaps, been about as 
exhaustively treated of as any in your columns, are we any 
nearer a correct solution ? I believe we had better com- 
promise the matter by admitting that they drum in a variety 
of ways. 
I remember well on one occasion, I carefully watched a 
ruffed grouse drumming as he stood upon a huge rock, and 
from my close proximity to the bird I noticed that while 
the wings moved with wonderful rapidity, they did not 
touch the rock, being clear of the latter by about two 
inches, in their movements. On another occasion, while 
resting in a deep ravine, I was afforded an opportunity of 
seeing this very interesting operation performed upon a 
log, and In this case I am equally certain he beat the log 
with his wings. 
Such being the case is it really safe to lay down any fixed 
rule with regard to this bird’s drumming ? I think not ; for 
from what I have seen of them in their native haunts, I am 
forced to believe that, like man, they adapt themselves to 
circumstances, and can drum in a variety of ways. I admit 
it seems hard to believe that such is a fact, but I can see no 
other way out of the mire. c. A. R. 
Waterbdry, Conn. 
Editor American Field: — Your numerous readers here- 
abouts have been much interested in the discussion now 
going on over the “drumming of the ruffed grouse.” In a 
conversation among several of us a day or two since on the 
subject, one or two of the party declared that they had seen 
the bird in the act of “drumming,” that the position was 
erect, and that the motion of the wings was very rapid. In 
response to a volley of questions as to how the sound was 
produced, neither of them gave very definite replies at first ; 
j but one of them, finally, brought down the house by declar- 
ing that his firm belief was that the wings did not strike on 
anything— unless it was on an “empty stomach.” This is 
I offered as a possible solution of the mystery. Mahaiwe. 
