136 HISTORY OF 



with us in the highlands of Scotland ; the grous is about half as 

 large again as a partridge, and its colour much like that of a wood- 

 cock, but redder ; the ptarmigan is still somewhat less, and is of 

 a pale brown or ash colour. They are all distinguishable from other 



" Secondly, their known dislike of ponds, marshes, or watery places, which 

 they avoid on all occasions, drinking- but seldom, and, it is believed, never 

 from such places. Even in confinement this peculiarity has been taken 

 notice of. While I was in the State of Tennesee, a person living within a 

 few mUes of Nashville had caught an old hen grous in a trap ; and, being- 

 obliged to keep her in a large cage, as she struck and abused the rest of the 

 poultry, he remarked that she never drank, and that she even avoided that 

 Quarter of the cage where the cup containing the water was placed. Hap- 

 pening, one day, to let some water fall on the cage, it trickled down in 

 drops along the bars, which the bird no sooner observed, than she eagerly 

 picked them off, drop by drop, with a dexterity that showed she had been 

 habituated to tliis mode of quenching her thirst ; and probably, to this mode 

 only, in those dry and barren tracts, where, except the drops of dew, and 

 drops of rain, water is very rarely to be met with. For the space of a week 

 he watched her closely, to discover whether she still refused to drink ; but, 

 though she was constantly fed with Indian corn, the cup and water still re- 

 mained untoiu-hed and untasted. Yet no sooner did he again sprinkle 

 water on the bars of the cage, than she eagerly and rapidly picked them 

 off as before. 



" The last, and probably, the strongest inducement to their preferring these 

 plains, is the small acorn of the shrub oak ; the strawberries, huckleberries, 

 and partridgeberries, with which they abound, and which constitute the 

 principal part of the food of these birds. These brushy thickets also afford 

 them excellent shelter, being almost impenetrable to dogs or birds of prey. 



But what appears to me the most remarkable circumstance relative to this 

 bird, is, that not one of all those writers who have attempted its history, 

 have taken the least notice of two extraordinary bags of yellow skin which 

 mark the neck of the male, and which constitute so striking a peculiarity. 

 These appear to be formed by an expansion of the gullet, as well as of the 

 exterior skin of the neck, which, when the bird is at rest, hangs in loose, 

 pendulous, wrinkled folds, along the side of the neck, the supplemental 

 wings, at the same time, as well as %vhen the bird is flying, lying along the 

 neck. But when these bags are inflated with air, in breeding time, they are 

 equal in size, and very much resemble in colour, a middle sized fully ripe 

 orange. By means of this curious apparatus, which is very observable 

 several hundred yards off, he is enabled to produce the extraordinary sound 

 mentioned above, which, though it may easily be imitated, is yet difficult to 

 describe by words. It consists of three notes, of the same tone, resembling 

 those produced by the night hawks in their rapid descent ; each strongly 

 accented, the last being twice as long as the others. When several are thus 

 engaged, the ear is unable to distinguish the regularity of these triple notes, 

 there being, at such times, one continued bumming, which is disagreeable 

 «nd perplexing, from the impossibility of ascertaining from what distance, 

 or even quarter, it proceeds. While uttering this, the bird exhibits all the 

 Mstentatious gesticulations of a turkey cock ; erecting and fluttering his 



