all 
882 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 
they have perceived it as far as five or six. This noise is a sort of 
ventriloquism. It does not strike the ear of a bystander with much 
force, but impresses him with the idea, though produced within a 
few rods of him, of a voice a mile or two distant. This note is 
highly characteristic. Though very peculiar, it is termed footing, 
from its resemblance to the blowing of a conch or horn from a 
remote quarter. The female makes her nest on the ground, in 
recesses very rarely discovered by men. She usually lays from ten 
to twelve eggs, which are of a brownish color, much resembling 
those of a Guinea Hen. When hatched, the brood is protected by 
her alone. Surrounded by her young, the mother-bird exceedingly 
resembles a domestic Hen and chickens. She frequently leads 
them to feed in the roads crossing the woods, on the remains of 
maize and oats contained in the dung dropped by the travelling 
horses. In that employment, they are often surprised by the pas- 
sengers. On such occasions, the dam utters a cry of alarm. The 
little ones immediately scamper to the brush; and, while they are 
skulking into places of safety, their anxious parent beguiles the 
spectator by drooping and fluttering her wings, limping along the 
path, rolling over in the dirt, and other pretences of inability to 
walk or fly. 
“‘ Food. — A favorite article of their diet is the heath-hen plum, 
or partridge-berry. They are fond of whortleberries and cran- 
berries. Worms and insects of several kinds are occasionally found 
in their crops. But, in the winter, they subsist chiefly on acorns 
and the buds of trees which have shed their leaves. In their 
stomachs have been sometimes observed the leaves of a plant sup- 
posed to be a wintergreen; and it is said, when they are much 
pinched, they betake themselves to the buds of the pine. In con- 
venient places, they have been known to enter cleared fields, and 
regale themselves on the leaves of clover; and old gunners have 
reported that they have been known to trespass upon patches of 
buckwheat, and pick up the grains. 
“ Migration. — They are stationary, and never known to quit 
their abode. ‘There are no facts showing in them any disposition 
to migration. On frosty mornings, and during snows, they perch 
on the upper branches of pine-trees. They avoid wet and swampy 
places, and are remarkably attached to dry ground. The low and 
