88 DIVISION I. VERTEBRAL ANIMALS.—CLASS II. AVES. 
of the word, resident, haying their particular haunts and places of rendez- 
vous (as described in the preceding account), to which they are strongly 
attached. Yet they have been known to abandon an entire tract of coun- 
try, when, from whatever cause it might proceed, it became again covered 
with forest. A few miles south of the town of York, in Pennsylvania, 
commences an extent of country, formerly of the character described, now 
chiefly covered with wood, but still retaining the name of Barrens. In the 
recollection of an old man born in that part of the country, this tract 
abounded with grouse. The timber growing up, in progress of years, these 
birds totally disappeared ; and, for a long period of time, he had seen none 
of them, until, migrating with his family to Kentucky, on entering the Bar- 
rens, he, one morning, recognized the well-known music of his old acquaint- 
ance, the grouse, which, he assures me, are the very same with those he 
had known in Pennsylvania. 
“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 
has taken the least notice of those two extraordinary bags of yellow skin 
which mark the neck of the male, and which constitute so striking a pecu- 
liarity. These seem 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 when 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 color a middle-sized, fully ripe 
orange. By means of this curious apparatus, which is very observable sev- 
eral 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 
and perplexing, from the impossibility of ascertaining from what distance, 
or even quarter, it proceeds. While uttering this, the bird exhibits all the 
ostentatious gesticulations of a turkey-cock — erecting and fluttering his neck 
and wings, wheeling and passing before the female, and close before his fel- 
lows, as in defiance. Now and then are heard some rapid, cackling notes, not 
unlike that of a person tickled to excessive laughter; and, in short, one can 
scarcely listen to them without feeling disposed to laugh from sympathy. 
These are uttered by the males while engaged in fight, on which occasion 
they leap up against each other, exactly in the manner of turkeys, seemingly 
