6 FIELD KEY TO THE LAND BIRDS. 
with gray and black spots; underparts white, with 
black and gray bars; a black ruff on the side of the 
neck; tail gray or red-brown. This is a thorough 
wood bird, feeding on seeds, berries, and insects, and 
in winter on buds, particularly those of apple and 
black birch trees. Young Partridges are able to run 
almost as soon as they are hatched, and when sur- 
prised jump and hide like mice. The old birds are 
celebrated for the ingenious tricks by which they 
draw any danger away from the young and centre the 
enemy’s attention on themselves. With much ado 
they play at being wounded or crippled, and allow 
man or dog almost to touch them, fluttering farther 
and farther until they think the young ones quite 
safe. Then they suddenly disappear, behind a tree 
or stone wall, and fly unseen back to the young, 
leaving their pursuer wondering where they have 
gone. Partridges stay together in flocks until early 
fall, and then seem to live singly, though often in 
close neighborhood on some favorable feeding ground. 
They remain in a district or even in a single favorite 
spot for several seasons, and when not hunted are not 
shy, though never really tame. They are never found 
in open grounds, and even on their grasshopper hunts 
stay on the edges of the woods. 
4. PRAIRIE HEN, PINNATED: GROUSE; 
Tympanuchus americanus, AND HEATH HEN, Zym- 
panuchus cupido, are, with the exception of a few 
very small differences, exactly alike. Length, 18 
inches. Buff above and white below, barred with 
black and brown; the side of the neck adorned with 
a tuft of long, narrow, and straight feathers. The 
Prairie Hen inhabits the prairie lands of the Mis- 
sissippi, though not in so great numbers as formerly. 
The Heath Hen used to inhabit the Eastern coast, 
but is now reduced to a few birds on Martha’s Vine- 
yard, which, though protected, do not seem to 
prosper. 
