22 RUFFED GROUS. 



approach 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, chestnuts, black berries, and various 

 vegetables. Formerly they were numerous in the immediate 

 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 September and 

 October. At this season they feed chiefly on whortle-berries, 

 and the little red aromatic partridge-berries, the last of which 

 gives their flesh a peculiar delicate flavour. 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 the laurel. I have frequently 

 found their crops distended with a large handful of these latter 

 alone; and it has been confidently asserted, that after having fed 

 for some time on the laurel buds, their 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 eat freely of the 

 flesh of the Pheasant, after emptying it of large quantities of 

 laurel buds, without experiencing any bad consequences, yet, 

 from the respectability of those, some of them eminent physi- 

 cians, who have particularized cases in which it has proved 

 deleterious, and even fatal, I am inclined to believe that in 

 certain cases where this kind of food has been long continued, 

 and the birds allowed to remain undrawn for several days, until 

 the contents of the crop and stomach have had time to diffuse 

 themselves through the flesh, us is loo often the case, it may be 



