102 A HISTORY OF 



who would take;hitu, must venture up to find him in his native re 

 treats. ': *.-" . V '. '.*' : : . / 



The cock.oCt.he. w.qocl, whe.n in the. forest, attaches himself princi- 

 pally to the-^ak^nklvth? yiate-itrefc - r - the ftones of the latter serving for 

 his food, aiid'the thick 'boughs'for a habitation. He even makes a 

 choice of what cones he shall feed upon ; for he sometimes will strip 

 one tree bare before he will deign to touch the cones of another. 

 He feeds also upon ants' eggs, which seem a high delicacy to all 

 birds of the poultry kind : cranberries are likewise often found in his 

 crop ; and his gizzard, like that of domestic fowls, contains a quanti- 

 ty of gravel, for the purposes of assisting his powers of digestion. 



At the earliest return of spring, this bird begins to feel the genial 

 influence of the season. During the month of March, the approach- 

 es of courtship are continued, and do not desist till the trees have all 

 their leaves, and the forest is in full bloom. During this whole sea- 

 sou, the cock of the wood is seen at sun-rise and setting, extremely 

 active upon one of the largest branches of the pine-tree. With his 

 tail raised and expanded like a fan, and the wings drooping, he is 

 seen walking backward and forward, his neck stretched out, his head 

 swollen and red, and making a thousand ridiculous postures ; his 

 cry upon that occasion, is a kind of loud explosion, which is instan- 

 tly followed by a noise like the whetting of a scythe, which ceases 

 and commences alternately for about an hour, and is then terminated 

 by the same explosion. 



During the time this singular cry continues, the bird seems entire- 

 y deaf, and insensible of every danger : whatever noise may be made 

 near him, or even though fired at, he still continues his call ; and. 

 this is the time that sportsmen generally take to shoot him. Upon 

 all other occasions, he is the most timorous and watchful bird in Na- 

 ture : but now he seems entirely absorbed by his instincts ; and sel- 

 dom leaves the place where he first begins to feel the accesses of desire. 

 This extraordinary cry, which is accompanied by a clapping of the 

 wings, is no sooner finished, than the female hearing it replies, ap- 

 proaches, and places herself under the tree, from whence the cock 

 descends to impregnate her. The number of females that, on this 

 occasion, resort to his call, is uncertain ; but one male generally suf- 

 fices for all. 



The female is much less than her mate, and entirely unlike him in 

 plumage, so that she might be mistaken for a bird of another species : 

 she seldom lays more than six or seven eggs, which are white, and 

 marked with yellow, of the size of a common hen's egg ; she gene- 

 rally lays them in a dry place, and a mossy ground, and hatches them 

 without the company of the cock. When she is obliged, during the 

 time of incubation, to leave her eggs in quest of food, she covers them 

 up so artfully with moss or dry leaves, that it is extremely difficult to dis- 

 cover them. On this occasion she is extremely tame and tranquil, 

 however wild and timorous in ordinary. She often keeps to her nest, 

 though strangers attempt to drag her away. 



As soon as the young ones are hatched, they are seen running with 

 extreme agility after the mother, though sometimes they are not en- 

 tirely disengaged from the shell. The hen leads them "for ward, for 

 the first time, into tne woods, snows them ants' eggs, and the wild 



