UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 341 



the Missouri. 1 he Indians who accompanied Lewis and Clark's 

 pany on their return irom the Pacific, knew nothing of this bird. 

 The Turkey in its wild sate becomes much larger, and its flesh is 

 in greater esteem, than when it is domesticated. It is not unusual 

 to hill them weighing upwards of thirty pounds. 



Ruffed Grous. This is the Partridge of the eastern states, and 

 the Pheasant of Pennsylvania and the southern districts. It is known 

 in almost every quarter of the United States, and appears to inhabit a 

 very extensive range of country. Its favourite places of resort are 

 high mountains, covered with the Balsam pine, hemlock, and such 

 like evergreens. Unlike the Pinnated Grous, it always prefers the 

 woods ; is seidoai or never found in open plains ; but loves the pine- 

 sheltered acclivities of mountains near streams of water. The man- 

 ners of the Pheasant are solitary ; they are seldom found in coveys of: 

 more than four or five together, and more usually in pairs or singly. 

 T:ie drumming, as it is usually called, is a singularity of this species, 

 T lis is performed by the male alone. The bird standing on an old 

 prostrate log. lowers his wings, erects his expanded tail, contracts his 

 throat, elevates the two tutts of feathers on the neck, and inflates his 

 whole body something in the manner of the Turkey-cock, strutting 

 and wheeling about with great stateliness. After a few manoeuvres 

 oi this kind, ne oegins to strike his body with his stiffened wings in 

 short and quick strokes : these are at first slow and distinct, but 

 gr^duii.iy increase in rapidity till they run into each other, resembling 

 th» rumbling sound of very distant thunder, dying away gradually on 

 the ear. Alter a few minutes pause this is repeated ; and in a calm 

 day it may be heard nearly half a mile off. This drumming is most 

 common in the spring, and is the call of the cock to his favourite 

 female. 



The Ruffed Grous hatches in May ; the eggs are from nine to 

 fifteen in number, of a brownish white, and nearly as large as those 

 of a pullet. The young leave the nest as soon as hatched, and are 

 directed by the cluck of the mother, very much in the manner of the 

 common hen. These birds are very common in the Philadelphia 

 markets, and their flesh is much esteemed. 



Pinnated Grous. This species in the middle states is simply term- 

 ed Grous ;* and the epithet pinnated has been applied to it by natura- 

 lists from the circumstance of the neck of the male being furnished 

 with supplemental wings, each composed of eighteen feathers, which 

 the bird can raise or depress at pleasure. He has another peculiarity 

 which naturalists appear to have overlooked : this is two bags of 

 yellow skin, one on each side of the neck, which, when the bird is 

 at rest, hang in loose wrinkled folds ; but when these bags are in- 

 flated, in breeding time, they are equal in size, and very much resem- 

 ble in colour, 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, which is called 

 bumming ; this is uttered only in the season of love, and is for the 

 purpose of attracting the female. 



This rare bird, though an inhabitant of different and very distant dis- 

 tricts of North Amenta, is extremely particular in selecting his place 

 of residence ; pitching only upon those tracts whose features and pro- 

 ductions correspond with his modes of life ; and avoiding immense 



* In some places the common people call them Heath-hens. 

 Vol. II. X *■■ 



