384 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



" These places of exhibition have been often discovered by the 

 hunters ; and a fatal discovery it has been for the poor Grouse. 

 Their destroyers construct for themselves lurking-holes made of pine 

 branches, called hough houses, within a few yards of the parade. 

 Hither they repair with their fowling-pieces, in the latter part of 

 the night, and wait the appearance of the birds. Watching the 

 moment when two are proudly eying each other, or engaged in 

 battle, or when a greater number can be seen in a range, they pour 

 on them a destructive charge of shot. This annoyance has been 

 given in so many places, and to such extent, that the Grouse, after 

 having been repeatedly disturbed, are afraid to assemble. On 

 approaching the spot to which their instinct prompts them, they 

 perch on the neighboring trees, instead of alighting at the scratch- 

 ing-place ; and it remains to be observed how far the restless and 

 tormenting spirit of the marksmen may alter the native habits of 

 the Grouse, and oblige them to betake themselves to new ways 

 of life. 



"They commonly keep together in coveys, or packs, as the 

 phrase is, until the pairing season. A full pack consists, of course, 

 of ten or a dozen. Two packs have been known to associate. I 

 lately heard of one whose number amounted to twenty-two. They 

 are so unapt to be startled, that a hunter, assisted by a dog, has 

 been able to shoot almost a whole pack, without making any of 

 them take wing. In like manner, the men lying in concealment 

 near the scratching-places have been known to discharge several 

 guns before either the report of the explosion, or the sight of their 

 wounded and dead fellows, would rouse them to flight. It has 

 further been remarked, that, when a company of sportsmen have 

 surrounded a pack of Grouse, the birds seldom or never rise upon 

 their pinions while they are encircled ; but each runs along until 

 it passes the person that is nearest, and then flutters off with the 

 utmost expedition. Samuel L. Mitchill." 



He then continues with his own observations : — 



" This bird, though an inhabitant of different and very distant 

 districts of North America, is extremely particular in selecting his 

 place of residence ; pitching only upon those tracts whose features 

 and productions correspond with his modes of life, and avoiding 



