File:American game-bird shooting (1910) (14569008777).jpg

Identifier: americangamebird00grin (find matches)
Title: American game-bird shooting
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Grinnell, George Bird, 1849-1938
Subjects: Game and game-birds Hunting
Publisher: New York, Forest and stream publishing company
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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e drumming began again, stillsounding as distant as before. I then very quietly mademy way into the bushes, advancing six or eight yardstoward the point where I had last seen the grouse, butthe drumming was not resumed, and after a few mo-ments I withdrew, but had hardly reached the trailwhen I again heard the sound. A second excursion,into the bushes was no more successful than the firsthad been, but somewhat later, on my return, hearingthe drumming, I again went into the bushes, and justbeyond where I had seen the grouse disappear I sawit walk away among the brush. This is mentioned onlyto indicate how very faint the sound of the drummingmay be, although it is quite close at hand. Few subjects have been more discussed by Americannaturalists and sportsmen than this same drumming,a sound so familiar to outdoor men as hardly to needdescription. It is commonly thought to be a matingcall, though by no means sounded only at the pairingseason in spring; for the roll of the drumming, sound-
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a x 3 ■o -o a O T3 2 3 o RUFFED GROUSE—PARTRIDGE 145 ing like far-off thunder, is often heard in late summerand autumn. It is possible that this autumnal drum-ming is made by the young males, just as sometimes inautumn a young male songbird may be heard to prac-tice in low tones the lay which it will utter during themating season of the following spring. A great varietyof explanations have been given as to the method bywhich the drumming is produced. It is made by thewings, and the observations of ornithologists have es-tablished the fact that the sound is caused by the out-spread wings of the bird rapidly beating the air with-out striking the birds body or any other object. Pho-tographs taken by Professor Hodge show the wingsbeating in front of the breast as the bird sits uprightduring the act. The belief that the resonance of thesound is caused in part because, while drumming, thebird stands on a hollow log, was long ago abandoned.One of the best descriptions of the process of d

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