382 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



they have perceived it as far as five or six. This noise is a sort of 

 ventriloquism. It does not strike the ear of a bystander with much 

 force, but impresses him with the idea, though produced within a 

 few rods of him, of a voice a mile or two distant. This note is 

 highly characteristic. Though very peculiar, it is termed tooting, 

 from its resemblance to the blowing of a conch or horn from a 

 remote quarter. The female makes her nest on the ground, in 

 recesses very rarely discovered by men. She usually lays from ten 

 to twelve eggs, which are of a brownish color, much resembling 

 those of a Guinea Hen. When hatched, the brood is protected by 

 her alone. Surrounded by her young, the mother-bird exceedingly 

 resembles a domestic Hen and chickens. She frequently leads 

 them to feed in the roads crossing the woods, on the remains of 

 maize and oats contained in the dung dropped by the travelling 

 horses. In that employment, they are often surprised by the pas- 

 sengers. On such occasions, the dam utters a cry of alarm. The 

 little ones immediately scamper to the brush ; and, while they are 

 skulking into places of safety, their anxious parent beguiles the 

 spectator by drooping and fluttering her wings, limping along the 

 path, rolling over in the dirt, and other pretences of inability to 

 walk or fly. 



" Food. — A favorite article of their diet is the heath-hen plum, 

 or partridge-berry. They are fond of whortleberries and cran- 

 berries. "Worms and insects of several kinds are occasionally found 

 in their crops. But, in the winter, they subsist chiefly on acorns 

 and the buds of trees which have shed their leaves. In their 

 stomachs have been sometimes observed the leaves of a plant sup- 

 posed to be a wintergreen; and it is said, when they are much 

 pinched, they betake themselves to the buds of the pine. In con- 

 venient places, they have been known to enter cleared fields, and 

 regale themselves on the leaves of clover ; and old gunners have 

 reported that they have been known to trespass upon patches of 

 buckwheat, and pick up the grains. 



" Migration. — They are stationary, and never known to quit 

 their abode. There are no facts showing in them any disposition 

 to migration. On frosty mornings, and during snows, they perch 

 on the upper branches of pine-trees. They avoid wet and swampy 

 places, and are remarkably attached to dry ground. The low and 



