260 GROUSE, SNIPE, QUAIL, WOODCOCK, ETC. 



has not had an equal, or greater, fame for these game- 

 birds, which are found upon most of lier grassy seas by 

 thousands. 



In Texas, the season for pairing is March, and the 

 breeding season continues through April and May. 

 During this season the male can be heard in the early 

 mornings a mile away, or more, sounding like the sub- 

 dued bellowing of a bull. The hen makes her nest on 

 the ground, laying seldom fewer than ten eggs, and 

 sometimes more than twenty ; and, were it not for the 

 vermin — the skunks, weasels, stoats, &c., and the 

 eagles and prairie hawks, they would soon become 

 almost too numerous, the dry summers of Texas being 

 very favourable for their breeding. The eggs are 

 rather smaller, but of the same colour and shape as 

 those of a guinea-hen. Prairie roads much travelled 

 are frequented by the hen when rearing her brood, for 

 the sake of the undigested oats and maize dropped by 

 the passing horses. In June and July I have fre- 

 quently surprised them at this employment. 



Plantations made on the prairies are much visited 

 by the grouse for the sake of the maize, peas, and other 

 grain to be found there. On the prairies they find 

 partridge-berries, wild vetches, wild myrtle-berries, 

 grass-seeds, &c., and in the autumn they resort to the 

 edges of the forests, or to wooded prairie sloughs, for 

 the sake of the mast-bearing trees, becoming at this 

 season so fat from the acorns, haws, &c., that they will 



