UPLAND SHOOTING. 69 



alarmed, they frequently dive into the snow, particularly Avhen 

 it has newly fallen, and coming out at a considerable distance, 

 again take wing. They are pretty hard to kill, and will often 

 carry off" a large load to the distance of two hundred yards, and 

 drop down dead. Sometimes in the depth of winter they ap- 

 proach the farm-house, and lurk near the barn or about the 

 garden. They have, also, been often taken young, and tamed, 

 so as to associate with the fowls ; and their eggs have frequently 

 been hatched under the common Hen, but these rarely survive 

 until full grown. They are exceedingly fond of the seeds of 

 grapes, occasionally eat ants, chesnuts, blackberries, and vari- 

 ous vegetables. Formerly they were numerous in the immedi- 

 ate vicinity of Philadelphia, but as the woods were cleared, and 

 population increased, they retreated to the interior. At present 

 there are very few to be found within several miles of the city, 

 and those only singly in the most solitary and retired woody 

 recesses. The Pheasant is in best order for the table in Sep- 

 tember and October. At this season they feed chiefly on wor- 

 tleberries, and the little aromatic partridgeberries, the last of 

 which give the flesh a peculiar delicate flavor. With the former, 

 our mountains are literally covered from August to November, and 

 these constitute at that season, the greater part of their food. 

 During the deep snows of winter they have recourse to the buds 

 of alder, and the tender buds of laurel. I have frequently found 

 their crops distended with a large handful of these latter alone, 

 and it has been confidently asserted that after being fed for some 

 time on the laurel buds, the flesh becomes highly dangerous to 

 eat of, partaking of the poisonous qualities of the plant. The 

 same has been asserted of the flesh of the deer, when, in severe 

 weather and deep snows they subsist on the leaves and bark of 

 the laurel. Though I have myself ate freely of the flesh of the 

 Pheasant, after emptying it of large quantities of laurel buds, 

 without experiencing any bad consequences ; yet from the re- 

 spectability of those, some of them eminent physicians, who 

 have particularized cases in which it has proved deleterious and 

 even fatal,. I am inclined to believe in certain cases, where this 



