C\ If. Merriam Birds of Connecticut. 101 



in Westford, Connecticut."* That our ancestors were fond of " fowl- 

 ing," and that it sometimes cost them their lives, may be seen from 

 the following : In October, 1636, one " Joseph Tilly, master of a bark, 

 came to anchor nearly opposite Calve's Island, and taking one man 

 with him, went on shore for the purpose of fowling. As soon as he 

 had discharged his piece, a large number of Pequots, rising from their 

 concealment, took him and killed his companion ; and then gratified 

 their malice by putting him to torture. They first cut off his hands 

 and then his feet ; after which he lived three days. But as nothing 

 which they inflicted upon him excited a groan, they pronounced him a 

 stout man."f And this occurred in the town of Saybrook, Conn., at 

 a time when many of our forefathers perished at the hands of the 

 Indians, before bringing them to submission. One Thomas Morton, 

 writing in 1(532, speaks of the presence of this bird in New England 

 in the following language : " There are a kinde of fowles which are 

 commonly called Pheisants, but whether they be pheysants or no, I 

 will not take upon mee, to determine. They are in form like our 

 pheisant-henne of England. Both the male and the female are alike ; 

 but they are rough footed : and have stareing feathers about the 

 head and neck, the body is as bigg as the pheysant-henne of Eng- 

 land ; and are excellent white flesh, and delicate white meate, yet we 

 seldom bestowe a shoot at them.";); The " white flesh" must have 

 been a mistake unless he referred to the Ruffed Grouse which is 

 immediately spoken of under the name of "Partridge." Nuttall 

 says of its habits : " The season for pairing is early in the spring, in 

 March or April. At this time the behavior of the male becomes 

 remarkable. Early in the morning he comes forth from his bushy 

 roost, and struts about with a curving neck, raising his ruff, expand- 

 ing his tail like a fan, and seeming to mimic the ostentation of the 

 Turkey. He now seeks out or meets his rival, and several pairs at a 

 time, as soon as they become visible through the dusky dawn, are 

 seen preparing for combat." 



* Manual of Ornithology, vol. i, p. 662. 1832. 



f A Statistical Account of the County of Middlesex, in Connecticut. By David D. 

 Field, p. 36. 1819. 



\ Force's Historical Tracts, vol. ii, Tract 5, p. 48. 



Nuttall's Manual of Ornithology, vol. i, pp. 663-64. 1832. 



