RUFFED GROUSE or 'PARTRIDGE.' The best known American grouse is the bird called 'par tridge' in the North and 'pheasant' in the South, but which is properly the ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus). This familiar and highly prized game bird, the flesh of which is incomparably superior to that of any other grouse, is found throughout North America from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from Virginia and northern Georgia to Alaska. It is nearly a foot and a half long, and the plumage is handsomely variegated with gray, red brown, and black. The tail is composed of eigh teen feathers, and is crossed near its tip by a broad band of black or brown. On each side of the neck is a tuft of broad, glossy black feathers. These grouse live in woodland, where their nests are made on the ground at the base of a tree or shrub. The eggs are huff-colored, and a dozen, more or less, are laid. (See Colored Plate of GAME l3ians accompanying this article.) The hazel grouse (Bonasa betulina) of Europe and Asia is a nearly allied species.
One characteristic of this species—its 'drum ming'—is known to almost every one, yet the method of it is widely misunderstood. The sound is produced by the male only, and is most fre quent and vigorous in the spring, when it may be regarded as a challenge to other cockS and for the entertainment of the hens; but as it is heard also in summer, and especially in autumn, it can not be wholly a sexual expression. It may be
only an expression of vigor. The manner in which the long, muffled roll, resounding to a great distance through the woods, is produced, was long a puzzle, or most fancifully explained. It was at first supposed to be a vocal effort, whence comes the generic name Bonasa (from bull). The true explanation is that the bird sits crosswise upon the chosen log, resting upon the back of the tarsi, its tail spread horizontally, and its head drawn back. "The wings are then raised and stiffened, and drumming commences by a slow, bard stroke with both wings downward and forward; but they are stopped before they touch the body. The rapidity of this motion is increased after the first few beats, when the wings move so fast that only a semicircular haze over the bird is visible. the rapid vibration caus ing the rolling noise with which the sound ter minates." So says Ifenshaw. and Cones and other field ornithologists confirm the statement.