Ifri HISTORY OF 



are white, and marked with yellow, of the size of 

 a common hen's egg ; she generally 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 discover them. On this 

 occasion she is extremely tame and tranquil, how- 

 ever 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 entirely 

 disengaged from the shell. The hen leads them 

 forward, for the first time, into the woods, shows 

 them ants' eggs, and the wild mountain berries, 

 which, while young, are their only food. As they 

 grow older, their appetites grow stronger, and 

 they then feed upon the tops of heather, and the 

 cones of the pine tree. In this manner, they 

 soon come to perfection ; they are a hardy bird, 

 their food lies every -where before them, and it 

 might therefore be expected that they should be 

 found in great abundance. But this is not the 

 case ; their numbers are thinned by rapacious 

 birds and beasts of every kind, and still more by 

 their own salacious contests. 



As soon as the clutching is over, which the fe- 

 male performs in the manner of a hen, the whole 

 brood follows the mother for about a month or 

 two ; at the end of which the young males en- 



