PINNATED-GROUSE SHOOTING. 57 



gamous, like our domestic cocks and hens. I have 

 never seen them paired off as quail are. Early 

 in the spring the cocks are together in gangs. 

 They get on hilly places, swell out their necks, 

 and make a booming noise, which can be heard at 

 a considerable distance. At this time, too, they 

 fight with each other like game-cocks. The hens 

 at the same season are to be found in gangs, but 

 not on the same ground as the cocks. While 

 the latter congregate on the hills the hens remain 

 on the prairie, and go into the corn-fields to feed. 

 A great deal of corn remains standing all the 

 winter in the West, and is not shucked until it is 

 time to plough and plant again. The grouse 

 mostly roost in the long grass of rich bottom- 

 lands. About the last of April and beginning of 

 May the hens make their nests. I have found 

 one on the tenth of May containing as many as 

 eight eggs. The nest is made on the ground, and 

 formed of a little grass, and is a good deal like 

 that of a domestic hen when she makes one in 

 the fields. When the hen-grouse can conveniently 

 get to the prairie, they build in that grass. When 

 they cannot, they build in the fields, and often 

 in patches of weeds. In the bottoms, which are 

 generally wet at that season, the nests are made 



