PINNATED GROUS. 37 



house; are sometimes seen sitting on the fences in dozens; mix 

 with the poultry, and glean up the scattered grains of Indian 

 corn; seeming almost half domesticated. At such times great 

 numbers are taken in traps. No pains, however, or regular plan 

 has ever been persisted in, as far as I was informed to domes- 

 ticate these delicious birds. A Mr. Reed, who lives between 

 the Pilot Knobs and Bairdstown, told me, that a few years ago, 

 one of his sons found a Grous's nest, with fifteen eggs, which 

 he brought home, and immediately placed below a hen then 

 sitting; taking away her own. The nest of the Grous 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 

 run after them, distracting her with the extent and diversity 

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

 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 remained. 

 These became extremely tame and familiar, were most expert 

 fly catchers; but soon after they also disappeared. 



The Pinnated Grous is nineteen inches long, twenty-seven 

 inches in extent, and when in good order, weighs about three 

 pounds and a half; the neck is furnished with supplemental 

 wings, each composed 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 re- 

 laxing; under the neck wings are two loose pendulous and 

 wrinkled skins, extending along the side of the neck for two- 

 thirds of its length, each of which, when inflated with air, re- 

 sembles, in bulk, colour and surface, a middle sized orange; 

 chin cream-coloured; under the eye runs a dark streak of brown; 

 whole upper parts mottled transversely with black, reddish 

 brown and white; tail short, very much rounded, and of a plain 



