140 lewis' AMERICAN SPORTSMAN". 



early hour in the morning, they usually leave their secluded 

 haunts, and repair to the roads that traverse the forests, where 

 they busy themselves in picking up gravel, and scratching for 

 grain in the droppings of horses. Euffed Grouse are also par- 

 ticularly partial to most kinds of seeds, berries, and grapes, and 

 are always in good condition when they can procure a supply 

 of wild strawberries, dewberries, and whortleberries, and will 

 not hesitate to roam long distances from their retreats in search 

 of these delicacies when in season. In the spring, Grouse feed 

 on the tender buds of various trees, and are perhaps less wild 

 then than at any other period of the year, but they are generally 

 very poor and tasteless. In the winter season. Grouse, as well 

 as Partridges, are driven to great extremes for food, and when 

 the snow is very deep they depend almost entirely for suste- 

 nance on the buds and leaves of the mountain laurel (Kalmia 

 Latifolia), and which food is said to poison their flesh so much 

 that it is dangerous to partake of them. 



We have already spoken of this circumstance when treating 

 of the Partridge, and avail ourselves of this opportunity to say 

 that we are very skeptical on this head, and doubt very much 

 whether a fresh-killed Pheasant could possibly poison any one 

 partaking of it, no matter how long the Bird had been forced 

 to feed upon the shrub. We are disposed to attribute these 

 instances of poisoning referred to by writers to other circum- 

 stances than the mere feeding on this shrub, and would rather 

 consider them as the consequence of partaking of these Birds 

 when half putrid from age, or even when preserved perfectly 

 sweet for a long while after death, with the craws stuffed full 

 of this plant, which might possibly render the flesh poisonous 

 by the absorption or impregnation of its noxious juices. Such, 

 in fact, is the opinion of most of the Ornithologists who have 

 given the subject their attention. As for ourself, we would not, 

 nor never did we hesitate to partake of Pheasants at all season- 

 able times, and often with a full knowledge of their craws being 

 stuffed with the leaves of laurel, provided we were satisfied that 

 the Birds had been lately killed, or that they had been drawn 

 soon after being shot. 



The Pheasant roosts in the trees very similar to Chickens, 



