288 



at 



and gray brown ; over the eyelids is a bare 

 red space ; nostrils covered with black, with 

 a small white spot on each side, and one 

 beneath ; throat, breast, and belly, black j 

 the latter spotted with white, except the 

 middle : sides of the body barred transversely 

 with grey-brown and dusky ; the feathers 

 with a white stripe near the tip : under tail 

 coverts black and white : tail black, tipped 

 with rufous : feathers of the tarsi gray- 

 brown : claws gray : beak black. 



PINNATED GROUSE. (Tetrao Cupido.*) In 

 its voice, manners, and peculiarity of plu- 

 mage, the Pinnated Grouse is the most sin- 

 gular, and, in its flesh, the most excellent, 

 of all those of its tribe that inhabit the 

 territory of the United States. Though an 

 inhabitant of different and very distant dis- 

 tricts of North America, this rare bird 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 immense 

 intermediate regions that he never visits. 

 Open dry plains, thinly interspersed with 

 trees, or partially overgrown with shrub oak, 

 are his favourite haunts : their predilection 

 for such situations being, according to the 

 opinion of Wilson, to be best accounted for 

 by considering the following facts and cir- 

 cumstances : First, their mode of flight is 

 generally direct, and laborious, and ill cal- 

 culated for the labyrinth of a high and thick 

 forest, crowded and intersected with trunks 

 and arms of trees, that require continual 

 evolution of wing, or sudden turnings, to 

 which they are by no means accustomed. 

 Secondly, their known dislike of ponds, 

 marshes, or watery places, which they avoid 

 on all occasions, drinking but seldom, and 

 it is believed, never from such places. The 

 last, and probably the strongest inducement 

 to their preferring these plains, is the small 

 acorn of the shrub oak ; the strawberries, 

 huckleberries, and partridge-berries, with 

 which they abound, and which constitute 

 the principal part of the food of these birds. 

 These brushy thickets also afford them ex- 

 cellent shelter, being almost impenetrable 

 to dogs or birds of prey. 



The Pinnated Grouse is nineteen inches 

 long, twenty-seven inches in extent, and 

 weighs about three pounds ; the neck is fur- 

 nished with supplemental wings, each com- 

 posed of eighteen feathers, five of which are 



black, and about three inches long ; the rest 

 shorter, also black, streaked laterally with 

 brown, and of unequal lengths ; the head is 

 slightly crested ; over the eye is an elegant 

 semicircular comb of rich orange, which the 

 bird has the power of raising or relaxing ; 

 under the neck wings are two loose, pendu- 

 lous, and wrinkled skins, extending along 

 the side of the neck for two-thirds of its 

 length, each of which, when inflated with 

 air, resembles, in bulk, colour, and surface, 

 a middle-sized orange ; chin, cream-co- 

 loured ; under the eye runs a dark streak of 

 brown ; whole upper parts mottled trans- 

 versely with black, reddish brown, and 

 white ; tail short, very much rounded, and 

 of a plain brownish soot colour ; throat ele- 

 gantly marked with touches of reddish 

 brown, white, and black ; lower part of the 

 breast and belly, pale brown, marked trans- 

 versely with white ; legs covered to the toes 

 witli hairy down of a dirty drab colour ; feet 

 dull yellow ; toes pectinated ; vent whitish ; 

 bill brownish horn colour ; eye reddish 

 hazel. The female is considerably less ; of 

 a lighter colour ; destitute of the neck wings, 

 the naked yellow skin on the neck, and the 

 semicircular comb of yellow over the eye. 



The season for pairing is in March, and 

 the breeding time is continued through 

 April and May. Then the male Grouse 

 distinguishes himself by a peculiar sound. 

 When he utters it, the parts about the throat 

 are sensibly inflated and swelled. It may 

 be heard on a still morning for three or 

 more miles. This noise is a sort of ventri- 

 loquism. It does not strike the ear of a 

 bystander with much force, but impresses 

 him with the idea, though produced within 



" rods of him, of a voice a mile or two 

 distant. This note is highly characteristic. 

 Though very peculiar, it is termed tooting, 

 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 ; and 

 she usually lays from ten to twelve brown- 

 ih-coloured eggs, much resembling those of 

 a guinea-hen. When hatched, the brood is 

 protected by her alone. Surrounded by her 

 young, the mother bird exceedingly re- 

 sembles a domestic hen with her chickens. 

 When at such times they are surprised, the 

 dam utters a cry of alarm ; and while the 

 "ittle ones are hurrying to a place of safety, 

 their anxious parent beguiles the spectator 

 by drooping and fluttering her wings, limp- 

 ing along the path, rolling over in the dirt, 

 and other 



fly. 



other pretences of inability to walk or 



During the period of mating, and while 

 the females are occupied in incubation, the 

 males have a practice of assembling, prin- 

 cipally by themselves. To some select and 

 central spot where there is very little under- 

 wood, they repair from the adjoining dis- 

 trict. From the exercises performed there, 

 this is called a scrateMng place. The time 

 of meeting is the break of day. As soon as 

 the light appears, the company assembles 

 from every side, sometimes to the number of 

 forty or fifty. When the dawn is past, the 

 ceremony begins by a low tooting from one 



