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Forest and Stream Letters 
Some Other Ruffed Grouse 
Traits 
DEAR FOREST AND STREAM: 
N beauty of plumage, the ruffed 
grouse and woodcock lead all of the - 
upland game birds of America. The 
barred tail of the grouse is all that 
saves him from being in class two. 
It is a difficult task to approach an 
old drummer without being seen. How- 
ever, I have watched his manoeuvers 
at very close quarters and have almost 
been near enough to reach him with 
my hand. One old fellow of my ac- 
quaintance drummed on a log near a 
rail fence on a steep hillside. The tree 
had been blown down by a storm and 
the roots were not much decayed mak- 
ing a fine screen to peep through. I 
was helping my father to set out some 
peach trees and we could see the log 
from where we were working and could 
see the movement of the wings when 
he would drum. My father had to go 
to the house for more trees and left me 
to plant two or three. When he was 
on his way he called back: “Don’t you 
bother that pheasant.” The trees were 
planted in a jiffy and I went out to 
get a close view of what I then con- 
sidered the greatest prize on earth. 
With all my stealth he saw me and 
scooted from the log down hill with not 
a sound of his wings. I saw him alight 
on a little knoll and walk into the 
thicket. Taking my station close up 
to the root and selecting a good open- 
ing to look through I awaited his re- 
turn. He must have taken a round- 
about way, for the first thing I knew 
he flapped up on the log. He was back 
in less than ten minutes. All I had to 
do was to keep from winking. He 
stood straight upright for a long time 
but turned his head from side to side 
investigating the surroundings. At 
last he commenced to strut. He came 
up to the butt of the log and then back 
to about the middle. After a minute 
or two standing straight upright with 
feathers close to his body he got ready 
to drum. As he raised his wings he 
lifted his ruff and the crest on his 
head. The loose skin above the eyes 
was elevated until the bright orange 
Page 735 

A study in canine expression 
crescent above the eye was exposed, 
giving him the appearance of wearing 
goggles. He inflated his breast like a 
cock turky. This to my notion is his 
sounding board. As Mr. Grange has 
it, the wings do not meet in front but 
they do strike the sides. but lightly. 
In many cases they make two or three 
preliminary strokes at the same time 
looking about before they commence 
the regular drumming. I think it is 
the old wary birds that do this. Early 
in the morning, if they are chased 
from the log, they will soon come back, 
and I have amused myself many times 
watching them. The majority of the 
drummers in the fall are young birds 
and not so hard to approach, neither 
do they make such a.fine display. The 
band on the tail of a young cock is 
black, on a very old one it is a light 
brown. My experience with ruffed 
grouse was in Pennsylvania where I 
lived many years and where they were 
very plentiful. 
E. A. VICKROY, 
Cincinnati, Ohio. 
A Unique Theory 
DEAR FOREST AND STREAM: 
WISH to congratulate Mr. Wallace 
Byron Grange upon his “ruffed 
grouse traits” in the October issue of 
ForEST AND STREAM from beginning to 
end. The tonal phenomenon of drum- 
ming birds has always interested me. 
When a boy, I was in the woods hunt- 
ing—hungry of course—when I heard 
a ten-horse power saw-mill engine 
starting suddenly, running light, which 
seemed to be about sixty rods over a 
knoll. That was my first impression, 
but that impression might have been 
swayed by a desire to appease my 
gnawing stomach, but I was soon dis- 
illusioned and know that I was listen- 
ing to a drumming grouse, so the tone 
it produced became my mecca, as the 
child’s query, “How does a cat purr?” 
excited the scientific world. Some 
summers later, I was using a fan, 
probably made of parchment stretched 
over a wire rim and upon swelling in 
moist weather, it had bulged the center 
out so that when used, the concave sur- 
