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384 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 
“These places of exhibition have been often discovered by the 
hunters; and a fatal discovery it has been for the poor Grouse. 
Their destroyers construct for themselves lurking-holes made of pine 
branches, called bough houses, within a few yards of the parade. 
Hither they repair with their fowling-pieces, in the latter part of 
the night, and wait the appearance of the birds. Watching the 
moment when two are proudly eying each other, or engaged in 
battle, or when a greater number can be seen in a range, they pour 
on them a destructive charge of shot. This annoyance has been 
given in so many places, and to such extent, that the Grouse, after 
having been repeatedly disturbed, are afraid to assemble. On 
approaching the spot to which their instinct prompts them, they 
perch on the neighboring trees, instead of alighting at the scratch- 
ing-place ; and it remains to be observed how far the restless and 
tormenting spirit of the marksmen may alter the native habits of 
the Grouse, and oblige them to betake themselves to new ways 
of life. 
“They commonly keep together in coveys, or packs, as the 
phrase is, until the pairing season. A full pack consists, of course, 
of ten or a dozen. Two packs have been known to associate. I 
lately heard of one whose number amounted to twenty-two. They 
are so unapt to be startled, that a hunter, assisted by a dog, has 
been able to shoot almost a whole pack, without making any of 
them take wing. In like manner, the men lying in concealment 
near the scratching-places have been known to discharge several 
guns before either the report of the explosion, or the sight of their 
wounded and dead fellows, would rouse them to flight. It has 
further been remarked, that, when a company of sportsmen have 
surrounded a pack of Grouse, the birds seldom or never rise upen 
their pinions while they are encircled; but each runs along until 
it passes the person that is nearest, and then flutters off with the 
utmost expedition. SamueL, L. MircuHitt.” 
He then continues with his own observations : — 
“This bird, though an inhabitant of different and very distant 
districts of North America, is extremely particular in selecting his 
place of residence ; pitching only upon those tracts whose features 
and productions correspond with his modes of life, and avoiding 
