ORDER GALLIN.E. GALLINACEOUS BIRDS.’ 
Tuer four families — Pleroclide, the Sand Grouse; Phasianide, the 
Pheasants, Turkeys, and Fowls; Yetraonide, the Grouse, and Crypturide, 
the Tinamous —are all interesting. They comprehend a very great variety 
of forms, and are scattered over both continents. Our limits will not per- 
mit an extended notice of them, and we will confine ourselves to one of the 
more interesting species. 
Of the Vetraonide, the Pinnated Grouse, or Prairie Chicken, is one of 
the most important and interesting. Wilson’s account of this bird is the 
best that we have seen. Quoting a letter from a friend, he says, — 
* Amours. —The season for pairing is in March, and the breeding-time 
is continued through April and May. Then the male grouse distinguishes 
himself by a peculiar sound. When he utters it, the parts about the throat 
are sensibly inflated and swelled. It may be heard on a still morning for 
three or four miles; some say they have perceived it as far as five or six. 
This noise is a sort of ventriloquism. It does not strike the ear of a by- 
stander with much foree, but impresses him with the idea, though produced 
within a few rods of him, of a voice a mile or two distant. This note is highly 
characteristic. Though very peculiar, it is termed tooling, from its resem- 
blanee to the blowing of a conch or horn from a remote quarter. The 
female makes her nest on the ground, in recesses very rarely discovered by 
men. She usually lays from ten to twelve eggs, which are of a brownish 
color, much resembling those of a Guinea hen. When hatched, the brood 
is protected by her alone. Surrounded by her young, the mother-bird ex~- 
ceedingly resembles a domestic hen and chickens. She frequently leads 
them to feed in the roads crossing the woods, on the remains of maize and 
oats contained in the dung dropped by the travelling horses. In that em- 
ployment, they are often surprised by the passengers. On such occasions, 
the dam utters a cry of alarm. The little ones immediately scamper to the 
brush; and, while they are skulking into places of safety, their anxious 
parent becuiles the spectator by drooping and fluttering her wings, limping 
along the path, rolling over in the dirt, and other pretences of inability to 
walk or fly. 
“ Food. — A favorite article of their dict is the heath-hen plum, ov par- 
tridge-berry. They are fond of huckleberries and cranberries. | Worms 
and insects of several kinds are occasionally found in their crops. But in 
the winter they subsist chiefly on acorns, and the buds of trees which have 
shed their leaves. In their stomachs have been sometimes observed the 
