UPLAND SHOOTING. C3 



from a little before day-break to eight or nine o'clock in the 

 morning, when the parties separate to seek for food. 



" Fresh-ploughed fiekls in the vicinity of their resorts are 

 sure to be visited by these birds, every morning, and frequently 

 also in the evening. On one of these I counted, at one time, 

 seventeen males, most of whom were in the attitude repre- 

 sented, making such a continued sound as, I am persuaded, 

 might have been heard more than a mile off. The people of 

 the Barrens informed me that when the weather becomes se- 

 vere, with snow, they approach the barn and farm-house, and 

 are sometimes seen sitting on the fields in the Indian corn, seem- 

 •ing almost domesticated.' At such times great numbers are taken 

 in traps. No pains, however, on regular plans, have ever been 

 persisted in, as far as I was informed, to domesticate these 

 delicious birds. A Mr. Reid, who lives between the Pilot- 

 Ii*f DBS and Bairdstown, told me that, a few years ago, one of his 

 sons found a Grouse's nest, with fifteen eggs, which he brought 

 home and immediately placed beneath a hen then sittin"-, tak- 

 ing away her own. The nest of the Grouse was on the 

 ground, under a tussock of long grass, formed with very little 

 art and few materials. The eggs were brownish white, and 

 about the size of a pullet's. In three or four days, the whole 

 were hatched. Instead of following the Hen, they compelled 

 her to move after them, distracting her with the extent and di- 

 versity of their wanderings ; and it was a day or two before they 

 seemel to understand her language, or consent to be guided by 

 her. They were let out to the fields, where they paid little 

 regard to their nurse, and, in a few days, only three of them re- 

 mained. These became exceedingly tame and familiar, were 

 most expert lly-catchers, but soon after they also disappeared. 



" On dissecting these birds, the gizzard was found extremely 

 muscular, having almost the hardness of a stone ; the heart 

 remarkably large ; the crop was filled with briar-knots, con- 

 taining the larvae of some insect, quantities of a species of 

 green lichen, small, hard seeds, and some grains of Indian Corn." 

 — TTI/soh's Am. Oniith. 



