544 FOREST AND STREAM September, 1918 
DEATH OF DR. G. G. DAVIS 
It is with deep regret that we record the 
death of Dr. G. G. Davis, of Philadelphia, 
who was the president of The Irish Setter 
Club of America for many years. 
Dr. Davis died at his summer camp at 
Seboomook, Maine. He was a fine gentle¬ 
man and a good sportsman and his death 
will be a distinct shock to all his friends 
and acquaintances. 
CATCHING BABY TROUT 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
What do you think about this? A 
couple of months ago the Wyoming State 
Fish Hatchery turned loose something like 
50,000 fingerling brook trout, in Pole Creek, 
Bear Creek, Horse Creek, South Crow and 
Granite Canon, and several thousand in 
two or three nearby lakes. They have no 
fishing season on any of these creeks, but 
the lakes, thank God, are closed. Most 
every one in Cheyenne goes fishing on 
Saturdays and Sundays, and they all catch 
fish (?) from 3 to 6 inches long, none I 
have seen have been larger than 5 inches 
in length. At the rate these so-called fish-, 
ermen and ladies are catching them I 
figure the State can turn loose 100,000 next 
summer and they won’t be noticed. Hasn’t 
Wyoming any game or fish wardens? If 
so, why don’t they stop this? Bear in 
mind I am only speaking of the Cheyenne 
people, not of the tourists and people liv¬ 
ing in close proximity to Cheyenne. Also I 
am not talking about the few real sportsmen 
living here, as there are a few who would 
be ashamed to catch all those baby trout. 
If there is any way to stop this I would 
like to see Forest and Stream take it up. 
Wyoming is a great State for outdoors 
people and we all know there is some good 
fishing to be found there, but why they let 
them catch the fingerling has “got my 
goat.” 
Faye Lucher, Cheyenne, Wyo. 
THE DRUMMING GROUSE 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I was very much interested in the arti¬ 
cle entitled “The Drumming of the 
Ruffed Grouse,” by Mr. Frederick K. Vree- 
land, in the April number. One must be 
favored by the red gods to be able to se¬ 
cure a series of such fine photographs of 
such a shy and interesting bird. It seems 
to be Mr. Vreeland’s opinion that the sound 
is made by striking the backs of the wings 
together and in this way throwing the air 
in some closed cavity in the bird’s body 
into vibration. I can not agree with this 
theory for several reasons. One reason is 
that there is no cavity that could be put in 
vibration from the back except the lungs 
and they are not a closed cavity so could 
not possibly be made into a drum. An¬ 
other reason is that if the sound were made 
in this way the backs of the wings would 
have to be brought together with terrific 
QUESTIONS, 
ANSWERS AND 
LETTERS 
force and they would make a clapping 
sound like the shingle in the wood shed in 
boyhood days and could be readily heard 
for a short distance. Another reason is 
that there is no closed cavity. 
The ruffed grouse does not have a mo¬ 
nopoly of the field as a drummer. It is 
shared by the turkey, the prairie chicken, 
the man-of-war bird and others. It seems 
to me that there is something in the fine 
photographs that Mr. Vreeland has over¬ 
looked. I think he has failed to notice 
the over-development of the throat and 
breast of the bird. The male ruffed grouse 
as well as the male prairie chicken and 
the male man-of-war bird is provided with 
a sac or sacs into which he is able to 
force air, distend and close, which makes 
a perfect drum. What farmer boy has 
not watched and admired the proud turkey 
gobbler during the mating season as he 
would strut with wings drooping at his 
side till the tips were dragging on the 
ground, ending each strut with the familiar 
“chook” made by inflating the air sac in 
front and above the breast. This sound 
is almost identical with the sound made by 
the ruffed grouse, but while the turkey 
gives only one beat the grouse gives sev¬ 
eral in quick succession, diminishing the 
intervals between them toward the last. 
In my opinion the sounds are produced in 
the same manner and I think the photo¬ 
graphs will bear me out in this theory. In 
the first picture notice the pouch-like full¬ 
ness beginning at the throat and extending 
to the breast. I think if one could have 
felt the over-plump breast of Mr. Grouse 
he would have found a bladder-like sac 
distended with air until it was as tight as 
a drum, the real drum on which Mr. Grouse 
plays when he wants to make a favorable 
impression upon his lady love. I think the 
sound is produced by inflating this sac pre¬ 
cisely as does the turkey gobbler. It seems 
in the following pictures that the form of 
the sac is changed, that it is constricted 
more or less especially in the middle. This 
is shown very plainly in the last two pic¬ 
tures on page 200 and the first two on 
page 201. Or there might be two sacs as 
there are in the prairie chicken. 
In the male prairie chicken there is one 
sac on either side of the neck just below 
the head. These are not visible except 
during the mating season when they are 
making their melodious call of hoo-hoo-oo- 
hoo-oo-oo. When they are making the call 
the sacs on each side of the neck are dis¬ 
tended with air till they are about the size 
and color of small oranges. In Iowa in 
early days -when there were thousands of 
prairie chickens where there are none now, 
the spring mornings were vibrant with 
their calls. In the springtime the calls 
were often heard in the evenings, very sel¬ 
dom in the middle of the day or in the 
fall. The male when strutting presents a 
comical appearance. The wing tips drag 
the ground as the turkey, the tail is ex¬ 
tended in a fan shape and the white band 
on the feathers makes a white semicircle, 
the head and neck are extended and thrust 
forward and near the ground, the long 
tufts of feathers at each side of the head 
are erected and when the head is thrust 
forward they stand perpendicularly and 
with the air sacs distended makes him 
easily the king of birdland lovers. At the 
end of each strut he stops, beats a tattoo 
on the ground with his feet so rapidly that 
the beats can not be counted, ending the 
performance with his hoo-hoo-oo-hoo-oo- 
00, which though not loud has great carry¬ 
ing power. 
The man-of-war bird is another example 
in which the male is provided with an air 
sac appendage which he inflates during the 
mating season. He sports one of a bright 
red color and the size of a toy balloon. It 
is in front of the neck just below the bill. 
I am not informed as to whether it is used 
as a sound producer or not, but the chances 
are that it is used in some way to produce 
the love call. 
Dr. Wilber R. Dowlin. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
A little while ago I read with much in¬ 
terest your article in the April number on 
the drumming of the ruffed grouse, and 
was then in mind to recount a recent and 
fortunate experience of my own. If the 
popular notion of this drumming having 
to do with a hollow log needed any further 
quietus, my evidence would be directly ir. 
point. Loafing in a sheltered spot on a 
rocky slope at the edge of a scattered 
wood and browsing on a book of verse one 
sunny afternoon, I was delightfully sur¬ 
prised by a cock grouse planing down to 
ground a few feet from where I lay. He 
did not notice me, but forthwith proceeded 
to drum. I had often moralized on the 
process for producing this sound and 
frankly believed the hollow-log yarn. But 
here there was no log—nothing but the 
bare ground. Time and again Mr. Grouse 
flung out his challenge or invitation. He 
would drum, then flirt a little distance 
ahead and drum again. The photographs 
in your article do describe this posturing, 
but although so close to him and myself 
so curious to here discover the real causa¬ 
tion, there was nothing to suggest that 
rapid motion of the wings in air produced 
it. At times he was about as close to me 
as the thirty feet you describe. To me it 
seemed a lung feat alone. The bird in¬ 
variably began by ruffing the breast feath- 
