118 GAME BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
the open to seek for grain, berries, or leaves which afford 
them a slight change of diet, and sometimes in winter, 
when the weather is severe and the snow deep, they will 
approach the barns or other buildings on the farms, and 
pick up whatever they can find in the way of grain or 
other suitable food. The nesting season appears to be 
a late one, although this is difficult to determine, as but 
few persons have seen the nest, but young broods have 
been met with late in July, which would show that incu- 
bation must have commenced somewhere near the begin- 
ning of that month. The booming note of the males is 
heard in the spring when they commence their courting, 
between daybreak and sunrise, and although, on account 
of the nature of the ground, the birds are seldom seen, 
yet the antics they practice at that time may not vary 
from those of the Pinnated Grouse at the same season. 
This booming sound at all events is very similar to that 
made by the Western birds. The eggs have rarely been 
taken, but a set of six, in the possession of my friend 
Mr. William Brewster of Cambridge, are about the same 
size as those of the Pinnated Grouse, perhaps a little 
smaller, and buffy white or creamy buff in color, tinged 
with greenish and unspotted. The nest is the usual slight 
depression in the soil, carelessly lined, and_ situated 
among weeds or anything affording concealment, and 
placed near a stump, roots of a tree, or fallen log. 
With adequate protection from strictly enforced laws, 
aided by the stunted trees and bushes ferming a tangled 
growth and covering the ground they frequent, there 
is no reason why these survivors of a disappearing race 
should not be able to preserve the existence of the species 
through long series of years yet to come. 
