CLASS II. AVES: ORDER 5. RASORES. 



239 



male has a slight crest on the head, and a yellow wattle on each side of the neck like a small orange ; 

 this the bird is able to inflate with air, and thus to produce a curious tooting sound, which 

 echoes through the woods, and is used as the call to the female. When the tooting is over these 

 bladders become relaxed. Audubon found, on perforating them with a pin, that they could no 

 longer be inflated. This species goes under the names of Prairie-Hen and Hcath-Hen^ besides 

 that given at the head of this article. It feeds on grasshoppers, wheat, and Indian corn, which it 

 ofathers in the fields, seeds of various kinds, and buds of trees. Their haunts are amono- fields and 

 grounds covered with bushes or shrub-oaks. One of their habits is thus described by Dr. Mitchell 

 in Wilson's Ornithology : " During the period of mating, and while the females are occupied 

 in incubation, the males have a practice of assembling, principally by themselves. To some 

 select and central spot, where there is very little underwood, they repair from the adjoining dis- 

 trict. From the exercises performed there, this is called a Scratchi)u/-2)lace. The time of meeting 

 is the break of day. As soon as the light appears, the company assembles from every side, some- 

 times to the number of forty or fifty. When the dawn is passed, the ceremony begins with a low 

 tooting from one of the cocks ; this is answered by another. They then come forth one by one 

 from the bushes, and strut about with all the pride and ostentation they can display. Their necks 

 are incurvated ; the feathers on them are erected into a sort of ruff"; the plumes of their tails are 

 expanded like fans ; they strut about in a style resembling, as nearly as small may be illustrated 

 by great, the pomp of the turkey-cock. They seem to vie with each other in stateliness ; and, as 

 they pass each other, frequently cast looks of insult, and utter notes of defiance. These are the 

 signals for battles. They engage with wonderful spirit and fierceness, leaping a foot or two from 

 the ground, and uttering a cackling, screaming, and discordant cry." 



CANADA GROUSE. 



The Heath-hen was fonnerly abundant throughout the United States; a few only are now found 

 in the Eastern States ; they are still common in the West, where they were formerly so numer- 



