PINNATED GROUSE 215 
So numerous were they a short time since in the bar- 
rens of Kentucky, and so contemptible were they as 
game birds, that few huntsmen would deign to waste 
powder and shot on them. In fact, they were held 
in pretty much the same estimation, or, rather, abhor- 
rence, that the crows are now in Pennsylvania or other 
of the Middle and Southern States, as they perpetrated 
quite as much mischief upon the tender buds and fruits 
of the orchards, as well as the grain in the fields, 
and were often so destructive to the crops, that 
it was absolutely necessary for the farmers to 
employ their young negroes to drive them away 
by shooting off guns and springing loud rattles 
all around the plantations from morning till night. As 
for eating them, such a thing was hardly dreamed of, 
the negroes themselves preferring the coarsest food to 
this now much admired bird; while the young sports- 
man exercised his skill in rifle shooting upon them, 
in anticipation of more exciting sport among the other 
prized denizens of the plains and forest. Prairie chick- 
ens have not only deserted Long Island, Martha’s Vine- 
yard, Elizabeth Island, New Jersey, and their other 
haunts to the eastward, but they have also removed 
even farther west than the barrens of Kentucky. .. .” 
Lewis says also in the course of this article that 
the pinnated grouse are easily domesticated, and will 
pair and hatch in captivity—all this from Audubon. 
The species has been extinct for more than forty 
years in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Mr. Witmer 
Stone says that up to 1868, and probably later, 
