RUFFED GROUSE. 269 



whei'e tliis kind of food has been long continued, and the birds allowed 

 to remain undrawn for several days, until the contents of the crop and 

 stomach have had time to diffuse themselves through the flesh, as is too 

 often the case, it may be unwholesome, and even dangerous. Great 

 numbers of these birds are brought to our markets, at all times during 

 fall and winter, some of which are brought from a distance of more than 

 a hundred miles, and have been probably dead a week or two, unpicked 

 and undrawn, before they are purchased for the table. Regulations 

 prohibiting them from being brought to market, unless picked and drawn, 

 would very probably be a sufficient security from all danger. At these 

 inclement seasons, however, they are generally lean and dry, and indeed 

 at all times their flesh is far inferior to that of the Quail, or of the Pin- 

 nated Grouse. They are usually sold in Philadelphia market at from 

 three-quarters of a dollar to a dollar and a quarter a pair, and some- 

 times higher. 



The Pheasant or Partridge of New England, is eighteen inches long, 

 and twenty-three inches in extent ; bill a horn color, paler below ; eye 

 reddish hazel, immediately above which is a small spot of bare skin of a 

 scarlet color ; crested head and neck, variegated with black, red brown, 

 white and pale brown ; sides of the neck furnished with a tuft of .large 

 black feathers, twenty-nine or thirty in number, which it occasionally 

 raises: this tuft covers a large space of the neck destitute of feathers ; 

 body above a bright rust color, marked with oval spots of yellowish 

 white, and sprinkled with black ; wings plain olive brown, exteriorly 

 edged with white, spotted with olive ; the tail is rounding, extends five 

 inches beyond the tips of the wings, is of a bright reddish brown beau- 

 tifully marked with numerous waving transverse bars of black, is also 

 crossed by a broad band of black within half an inch of the tip, which 

 is bluish white, thickly sprinkled and specked with black ; body below 

 white, marked with large blotches of pale brown ; the legs are covered 

 half way to the feet with hairy down, of a brownish white color ; legs 

 and feet pale ash ; toes pectinated along the sides, the two exterior ones 

 joined at the base as far as the first joint by a membrane ; vent yellow- 

 ish rust color. 



The female and young birds difi"er in having the ruff or tufts of 

 feathers on the neck of a dark brown color, as well as the bar of black 

 on the tail inclining much to the same tint. 



