THE PINNATED GROUSE. 



491 



by man or beasts of prey, has been known to remove the eggs to some other locality, where 

 she thinks they will not be discovered. 



The nest is a careless kind of structure, of grasses and stout herbage, and is placed on the 

 ground under the shelter of grass or bashes. The female lays about six or ten eggs of a 

 yellowish -gray diversified with spots of light brown. The young are fed first upon insects and 

 their larva), and afterwards on. berries, grain, the buds and young shoots of trees. 



It is a \vild and wary bird, requiring much care on the part of the spcirtsiuan to get within 

 fair gunshot. The old male which has survived a season or two is particulaily shy and crafty, 

 distrusting both man and dog, and lumiing away as fast as his legs can carry him as soon as he 

 is made aware of the approaching danger. 



In the autumn the young males separate themselves from the other sex, and fomi a 

 number of little bachelor establishments of their own, living together in harmony until the 

 next breeding season, when they all begin to fall in love ; the apple of discord is thrown 

 among them by the charms of the hitherto repudiated sex, and their rivalries lead them into 

 determined and continual battles, which do not cease until the end of the season restores them 

 to peace and sobriety, and they need fear no foes save the beasts and birds of prey, and their 

 worst enemy, the autumnal European statesman. 





PINNATED GROUSE.— ft/yjMwiia cuiMo. 



The general color of the adult male bird is black glossed with blue and purple, except a 

 white band across each wing. The under tail-coveiis are white. The remaikable form of the 

 tail is caused by the peculiar development of the exterior feathers, three, four, or even live of 

 which are laterally curved, the outermost being the longest and having the most decided curve. 

 Their ends are somewhat squared. The coloring of the female is quite difPerent. Her general 

 color is brown, with a tinge of orange, barred with lilack and speckled with the same hue, the 

 spots and bars being larger on the breast, bac-k, and ^vings, and the feathers on the breast more 

 or less edged with white. The under tail-coverts are grayish-white. The total length of the 

 adult male is about twenty-two inches, and that of the female from seventeen to eighteen 

 inches. 

 Heath Hen. 



She also weighs nearly one-third less than her mate, and is popularly termed the 



Another fine species of this group is the Pinnated Grouse of North America. 



This bird is found almost wholly in open dry plains on which are a few trees or tufta 



