Ruffed Grouse—Partridge. 
Continued from page 491. 
An interesting account of a case of drumming 
in the autumn—with its possible cause—is given 
by this same correspondent of Forest and 
Stream, who says: 
"On one occasion while out shooting in Clifr 
ton Park I fired at a grouse which fell to the 
ground and fluttered over it for some distance, 
but before I could reach him, rose again, and 
flying high, disappeared over the tops of the trees 
in the woods. Pursuing, I looked the ground 
well over, but was unable to find him. It so 
happened that two or three days after this oc¬ 
currence I was again on the same ground, and 
remembering the wounded grouse, went in search 
of him. I had not gone far when I heard a 
grouse drum, and moving cautiously I finally got 
behind an old moss-covered stone wall that ran 
through the woods. I had often heard grouse 
drum, but I had never seen one perform the 
act, and I was very desirous to do so. After a 
while he drummed again and I moved along the 
fence nearer; having by this time got his bear¬ 
ings. Upon looking over the wall I saw the 
bird standing on what I supposed to be a stone 
about five or six inches in height. After he 
had drummed he pecked at the supposed stone 
and then bobbed his head and tail up alternately, 
the latter being spread out. Then he jumped off 
the object and walked in a wide circle around 
it after the manner of the turkey cock, with 
wings lowered. After an interval he got on the 
stone again and drummed and performed as be¬ 
fore. About this time something alarmed the 
drummer and he disappeared into the covert. 
“Upon going to the spot wtyere he had drum¬ 
med I was astonished to find what I supposed 
a stone to be a dead male grouse. Upon it the 
drummer had stood and drummed, and about it 
he had paraded as described. The dead bird had 
one shot only through his head. It was the same 
I had shot a couple of days before which had 
flown there and fallen dead. 
“I have read that the drumming of the ruffed 
grouse is a demonstration of love and courtship, 
but from this incident I conclude that it is also 
either one of rivalry and triumph, or sounding 
a knell or requiem of a departed mate or friend.” 
This same correspondent of Forest and 
Stream, an observant man, has expressed the 
view that the grouse drums to announce the ap¬ 
proach of day at dawn, to announce any ap¬ 
proaching unusual atmospherical change during 
the night or day, to make his whereabouts known 
to the female, to celebrate her coming, to an¬ 
nounce a triumph over a rival, to sound a requiem 
over a dead mate or friend, to amuse himself. 
Most of these motives are precisely those which 
are supposed to actuate the domestic cock in his 
crowing or in the flapping of his wings which 
commonly accompanies the crowing. It is cer¬ 
tainly true that the grouse drums at night as 
well as by day. and that he frequently drums 
just before daylight and often just before “a 
change of weather.” 
Although so excellent an observer as Captain 
Bendire thinks that the drumming cannot be con¬ 
sidered a love note because, as he says, “It may 
be heard almost every month in the year and 
sometimes in the night as well as in the day 
time,” I am disposed to think that it is really 
in part a mating call. Other grouse perform 
in. autumn as well as in spring certain acts 
usually thought to be connected with the mat¬ 
ing season. The sharp-tailed grouse holds its 
dances in autumn, and I have been told that the 
dusky grouse hoots in the autumn as well as in 
spring, though by no means so vigorous’y. Cer¬ 
tainly we may believe that at the proper season 
of the year the call has an attraction for the fe¬ 
male, and S. T. Hammond, in. his capital book, 
“My Friend the Partridge,” testifies to this. 
A correspondent of Forest and Stream re¬ 
cently declared that grouse in autumn respdnd 
to the drumming call and can bq induced ,to ap¬ 
proach bv. an imitation of the soynd. The writer, 
though using a pseudonym, is a man of standing 
whose statements may be relied on. 
The nest of the ruffed grouse is built almost 
anywhere, yet perhaps most often on a hillside 
more or less steep, overlooking a swamp or a 
piece of woods. I have found nests among thick 
cedars on a hillside, or perfectly open and ex¬ 
posed, at the foot of a cedar tree in a mowing 
lot close to a fence, and again between two 
trees in an open piece of cedar wood where 
there w r as no apparent .cover whatever. The 
eggs are laid usua’ly in April or early May and 
by the middle of that month the clutch of twelve 
to seventeen is usually completed. The eggs are 
cream color or huffy, rarely spotted with brown 
at the larger end. If the female is startled from 
her nest she leaves it with a roar of wings, 
whose rapid beats often spread over the preciqus 
eggs the dry leaves by which the nest is likely 
to be surrounded. On a number of occasions I 
have seen the eggs quite hidden in this way. 
Most sportsmen know how very difficult. it is 
to see game birds when they are not in motion. 
The bird's feathers harmonize so admirably with 
its surroundings, whether these to be the leaf- 
strewn ground of October, the bare branches of 
December or the yellowing grass and weed stems 
of July, that it is ’ often almost impossible to 
detect the bird, even though one knows pre¬ 
cisely where it is. I recall an occasion when 
happening to cross a fence which separated a 
road from a mowing lot I almost stepped on a 
female grouse as I sprang to the ground. She 
was sitting on a nest with thirteen eggs, at the 
foot of a large cedar. Often after that I used 
to go down to the lot and slowly approach the 
place to look at the bird as she sat on her eggs. 
She soon became so accustomed to me that she 
manifested no alarm, and I could approach quite 
close to her. It always took me some little time 
to see the bird, though she sat in plain sight 
with only half a dozen slender grass stems be¬ 
tween her head and me. After looking for some 
time at the spot where I knew she sat, the shape 
of her head, her markings and above all her 
bright eye would gradually grow out of the 
confusion of the grass stems in front of her 
and the cedar bark beyond, and I could see the 
whole bird plainly. Yet if I turned my eyes 
away it again took a little time to find and recog¬ 
nize her. 
The eggs hatch late in May or early in June 
and the young number as many as a dozen or fif¬ 
teen. They leave the nest at once and nimbly 
follow the careful mother, as her chickens fol¬ 
low a domestic hen. She leads them quietly 
through the woods, teaching them the while how 
to live their lives and how to keep themselves 
safe from their enemies. At her call of alarm 
each chick sinks down on the ground and dis¬ 
appears, looking like a leaf, a bit of stick or a 
pebble. No one can recognize them as living 
things and their 6nly danger is that some clumsy 
person may step on one of them. Meantime the 
mother with feathers erect and trailing wings is 
limping in front of the intruder, falling down, 
pushing herself along on her breast, panting as if 
in the very agony of death, often “growling” or 
“whining” in the effort to lure the enemy away 
from the brood. Usually she succeeds. No dog, 
and few boys and men, can resist the temptation 
to catch a partridge. The pursuer runs forward 
and almost grasps her, but his approach seems 
to give her a little strength and she flutters 
feebly forward. A few steps more and she will 
be his; but still she evades him and presently, 
after having gone thirty or forty yards, she 
rises on strong wing and swift as a bullet darts 
off among the tree trunks. If the pursuer returns 
to the place where he first saw her, sits down 
and remains there quiet, after a time .he will 
see her return on foot, call together her little 
brood and start off again on her travels. 
In Capt. Bendire’s admirable work so often 
cited. Manly Hardy, after describing the actions 
of the fnother bird, says: 
“I have once seen the old cock with the brood, 
and on this occasion he gallantly defended the 
rear until the rest made good their escape. He 
stood with wings raised and tail spread ready to 
fight the intruder. I have seen the young fly 
into a tree when still in the yellow down, and 
when not larger than a pine grosbeak they will 
fly long distances giving the alarm note of ‘Quit, 
quit,’ just like an old bird. The young a few 
days old are shyer than the wariest adult. The 
noise made by the ruffed grouse in flying ‘is 
made on purpose’ to alarm other's in the vicinity; 
they can fly as quietly as any bird if they choose, 
“The males never congregate during the breed¬ 
ing season or after, and I never but once saw 
two adult males within one-fourth of a mile of 
each other between April and September. I con¬ 
sider that the drumming is not a call to the 
females, as they drum nearly or quite as much 
in the fall as in the spring, and I have heard 
them drumming every month in the year. I have 
never seen the least evidence that the ruffed 
grouse is polygamous.” 
With this last statement I agree. I know 
of no evidence to justify the common assump¬ 
tion that this grouse is polygamous. 
[to be continued.] 
