Jasper County Democrat, Volume 7, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 March 1905 — The Drumming of Grouse. [ARTICLE]

The Drumming of Grouse.

Who has not heard the drumming of raffed grouse while in the woods during the spring months? It is the most common sound of wooing, heard from every thicket at every hour of the day. There is still a misconception as to how the drumming is done. The general belief is that the bird produces the sound by working its wings rapidly, using them to strike its body or a log. It is true that the ruffed grouse, like most chickens, flaps its wings in the excitement of its love song, but that the drumming is produced in that manner is a myth. I have often watched a cock which, standing on a log and drumming for dear life, apparently did not move a feather, though I must state that the drumming was not so loud as if the wings had been flapped. Flapping the wings evidently fills with nlr the lungs and throat of the bird, but is not an Indispensable agency In producing the drumming. If the ruffed grouse could work its wings as quickly as the closing strophe of the drumming it would be the swiftest motor in existence.—Country Life In America.