108 BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA 



Northern and Eastern Birds" says : " From several instances which 

 have come to my knowledge, I am inclined to think that the female 

 Buffed Grouse, if persistently molested when nesting on the ground, 

 avails herself of the abandoned nest of a crow, or the shelter afforded in 

 the top of some tall broken trunk of a tree, in which she deposits her 

 eggs. Two of my collectors in northern Maine have sent me eggs 

 which they positively declared were found in a crow's nest in a high 

 pine, but which are undoubtedly of this species ; and recently I have 

 heard of another occurrence from my friend L. E. Kicksecker, of Penn- 

 sylvania. The only satisfactory theory that I can advance to account 

 for these departures from the usual habits of the grouse, is that the 

 birds had been much disturbed, their eggs or young perhaps destroyed ; 

 and as they are often in the trees, and are expert climbers, they laid 

 their eggs in these lofty situations to secure protection from their 

 numerous foes below." 



Pheasants are woodland birds, but I have observed, when hunting 

 them in the fall, that they often leave the woods and are found feeding 

 about the edges of fields, along the borders of woods or thickets. When 

 in such places two gunners can, if they are fair marksmen, generally 

 have good success, if one goes along the edge of the woods and his com- 

 panion takes the open territory. Hon. Nathan C. Evans, of Bedford 

 county, informs me he has examined the crops of hundreds of these 

 birds killed in the fall and ascertained that they subsist to a considerable 

 extent on the leaves arid blossoms of red clover. Forty-two Pheasants, 

 taken in the months of October, November and December, in Schuylkill, 

 Dauphin, Warren, Chester, Erie and Lancaster counties, which I have 

 examined, were found /to have fed mainly on Partridge berries, chest- 

 nuts, small seeds and other vegetable matter ; ten of this lot shot when 

 the snow was deep were all gorged with buds of laurel. The stomach 

 contents of twenty -two Pheasants, captured in Wayne, Susquehanna and 

 Wyoming counties December, 1889, and identified by my kind friend, 

 Benjamin M. Everhart, of West Chester, consisted principally of the 

 Fern (Aspidium spinulosum, Swartz, var., intermedium., Willd.), and 

 False Mitre-wort (Tiarella cordifolia, L.) with some few leaves and a 

 little fruit of the Partridge berry (Mitchella repens L.). Wilson writing 

 of their food says : " They are exceedingly fond of the seeds of grapes ; 

 occasionally eat ants, chestnuts, blackberries and various vegetables. 

 It has been confidently asserted that, after having fed for some time 

 on the laurel buds, their flesh becomes highly dangerous to eat of, par- 

 taking of the poisonous qualities of the plant, f * * * Though 

 I have myself ate freely of the flesh of the Pheasant, after emptying it 

 of large quantities of laurel buds, without experiencing any bad conse- 



*Prof. John H. Brinton, M. D., of the Jefferson Medical College. Philadelphia. Pa., informed me that 

 he had known of several cases of Glossitis (inflammation of the tongue) to have been caused by eating 

 Pheasants which had fed on laurel. Warren. 



