PINNATED GROUSE. 263 
The last, and, probably, the strongest inducement to their preferring 
these plains, is the small acorn of the shrub oak, the strawberries, 
huckleberries, and partridgeberries, with which they abound, and 
which constitute the principal part of the food of these birds. These 
brushy thickets also afford them excellent shelter, being almost im- 
penetrable to dogs or birds of prey. 
In all these places where they inhabit, they are, in the strictest 
sense of the word, resident ; having their particular haunts and places 
of rendezvous, (as described in the preceding account,) to which they 
are strongly attached. Yet they have been known to abandon an 
entire tract of such country, when, from whatever cause it might pro- 
ceed, 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 dis- 
appeared ; and, for a long period of time, he had seen none of them, 
until, migrating with his family to Kentucky, on entering the Barrens, 
he, one morning, recognized the well-known music of his old ac- 
quaintance, 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, have 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 peculiarity. These appear 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, in the manner repre- 
sented in one of the distant figures on the plate. 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 several 
hundred yards off, he is enabled to produce the extraordinary sound 
mentioned above, which, though it may easily be imitated, is yet diffi- 
cult 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 distin- 
guish 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 
wings, wheeling and passing before the female, and close before his 
fellows, as in defiance. Now and then are heard some rapid, cackling 
notes, not unlike that of a person tickled to excessive laughter ; az, 
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 thes jeap up against each other, exactly in 
