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THE PINNATED GROUS. 



Tetrao Cup 1 do, Linn. 



PLATE CLXXXVI. Male and Female. 



It has been my good fortune to study the habits of this species of 

 Grous, at a period when, in the district in which I resided, few other 

 birds of any kind were more abundant. I allude to the lower parts of 

 the States of Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri. Twenty-five 

 years and more have elapsed since many of the notes to which I now recur 

 were written, and at that period I little imagined that the observations 

 which I recorded should ever be read by any other individuals than those 

 composing my own family, all of whom participated in my admiration of 

 the works of Nature. 



The Barrens of Kentucky are by no means so sterile as they have 

 sometimes been represented. Their local appellation, however, had so 

 much deceived me, before I travelled over them, that I expected to find 

 nothing but an undulated extent of rocky ground, destitute of vegetation, 

 and perforated by numberless caverns. My ideas were soon corrected. 

 I saw the Barrens for the first time in the early days of June, and as I 

 entered them from the skirts of an immense forest, I was surprised at the 

 beauty of the prospect before me. Flowers without number, and vying 

 with each other in their beautiful tints, sprung up amidst the luxuriant 

 grass ; the fields, the orchards, and the gardens of the settlers, presented 

 an appearance of plenty, scarcely any where exceeded ; the wild fruit- 

 trees, having their branches interlaced with grape-vines, promised a rich 

 harvest ; and at every step I trode on ripe and fragrant strawberries. 

 When I looked around, an oak knob rose here and there before me, a 

 charming grove embellished a valley, gently sloping hills stretched out 

 into the distance, while at hand the dark entrance of some cavern attract- 

 ed my notice, or a bubbling spring gushing forth at my feet seemed to in- 

 vite me to rest and refresh myself with its cooling waters. The timid 

 deer snuffed the air, as it gracefully bounded off, the Wild Turkey led 

 her voung ones in silence among the tall herbage, and the bees bounded 

 from flower to blossom. If I struck the stiff foliage of a black-jack oak, 

 or rustled among the sumachs and brambles, perchance there fluttered be- 



