98 THE PINNATED GROUSE. 



ticated. While at Henderson, I purchased sixty alive, that were expressly 

 caught for me within twelve miles of that village, and brought in a bag laid 

 across the back of a horse. I cut the tips of their wings, and turned them 

 loose in a garden and orchard about four acres in extent. Within a week 

 they became tame enough to allow me to approach them without their being 

 frightened. I supplied them with abundance of corn, and they fed besides 

 on vegetables of various kinds. This was in the month of September, and 

 almost all of them were young birds. In the course of the winter they 

 became so gentle as to feed from the hand of my wife, and walked about the 

 garden like so many tame fowls, mingling occasionally with the domestic 

 poultry. I observed that at night each individual made choice of one of the 

 heaps in which a cabbage had grown, and that they invariably placed their 

 breast to the wind, whatever way it happened to blow. When spring 

 returned, they strutted, "tooted," and fought, as if in the wilds where they 

 had received their birth. Many laid eggs, and a good number of young ones 

 made their appearance, but the Grouse at last proved so destructive to the 

 young vegetables, tearing them up by the roots, that I ordered them to be 

 killed. So brave were some of the male birds, that they never flinched in 

 the presence of a large Turkey Cock, and now and then they would stand 

 against a dunghill cock, for a pass or two, before they would run from him. 



During very severe weather, I have known this species to roost at a con- 

 siderable height on trees, but they generally prefer resting on the ground. 

 I observed that for several nights in succession, many of these Grouse slept 

 in a meadow not far distant from my house. This piece of ground was 

 thickly covered with tall grass, and one dark night I thought of amusing 

 myself by trying to catch them. I had a large seine, and took with me 

 several negroes supplied with lanterns and long poles, with the latter of 

 which they bore the net completely off the ground. We entered the meadow 

 in the early part of the night, although it was so dark that without a light 

 one could hardly have seen an object a yard distant, and spreading out the 

 leaded end of the net, carried the other end forward by means of the poles at 

 the height of a few feet. I had marked before dark a place in which a great 

 number of the birds had alighted, and now ordered my men to proceed 

 towards it. As the net passed over the first Grouse in the way, the alarmed 

 bird flew directly towards the confining part of the angle, and almost at the 

 same moment a great number of others arose, and, with much noise, followed 

 the same direction. At a signal, the poles were laid flat on the ground, and 

 we secured the prisoners, bagging some dozens. Repeating our experiment 

 three times in succession, we met with equal success^ but now we gave up 

 the sport on account of the loud bursts of laughter from the negroes, who 

 could no longer refrain. Leaving the net on the ground, we returned to the 



