274 PINNATED GROUSE. 



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 beguiles the spectator by drooping and fluttering her 

 wings, limping along the path, rolling over in the dirt, and other pre- 

 tences of inability to walk or fly. 



" Food. — A favorite article of their diet is the heath-hen plvm, or 

 partridgeberry before mentioned. They are fond of hurtleberries, 

 and craneberries. 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 leaves of a plant supposed to be a 

 winter green ; and it is said, when they are much pinched, they betake 

 themselves to the buds of the pine. In convenient places they have 

 been known to enter cleared fields, and regale themselves on the leaves 

 of clover ; and old gunners have reported that they have been known 

 to trespass upon patches of buckwheat, and pick up the grains. 



" Migration. — They are stationary, and never known to quit their 

 abode. There are no facts showing in them any disposition to migration. 

 On frosty mornings and during snows, they perch on the upper branches 

 of pine-trees. They avoid wet and swampy places ; and are remarkably 

 attached to dry ground. The low and open brush is preferred to high 

 shrubbery and thickets. Into these latter places, they fly for refuge 

 when closely pressed by the hunters, and here, under a stifi" and inpene- 

 trable cover, they escape the pursuit of dogs and men. Water is so 

 seldom met with on the true grouse-ground, that it is necessary to 

 carry it along for the pointers to drink. The flights of Grouse are short, 

 but sudden, rapid and whirring. I have not heard of any success in 

 taming them. They seem to resist all attempts at domestication. In 

 this as well as in many other respects, they resemble the Quail of New 

 York, or the Partridge of Pennsylvania. 



^^ Manners. — During the period of mating, and while the females are 

 occupied in incubation, the males have a practice of assembling, princi- 

 pally by themselves. To some select and central spot where there is 

 very little underwood, they repair from the adjoining district. From 

 the exercises performed there, this is called a scratching-place. The 

 time of meeting is the break of day. As soon as the light appears, the 

 company assembles from every side, sometimes to the number of forty 

 or fifty. When the dawn is past, the ceremony begins by a low tooting 

 from one of the cocks. This is answered by another. They then come 

 forth one by one from the bushes, and strut about with all the pride 

 and ostentation they can display. Their necks are incurvated; the 

 feathers on them are erected into a sort of ruff ; the plumes of their 

 tails are expanded like fans ; they strut about in a style resembUng, as 

 nearly as small may be illustrated by great, the pomp of the turkey 



