200 THE PINNATED GROUSE. 



Unlike other species, they seldom pass over you, even when you surprise 

 them, and if the country is wooded, they frequently alight on the highest 

 branches of the tallest trees, where they are usually more accessible. If shot 

 almost dead, they fall and turn round on the ground with great violence until 

 life k xtinct; but when less injured, they run with great celerity to some 

 secluded place, where they remain so quiet and silent as to render it difficult 

 to find them without a good dog. Their flesh is dark, and resembles that of 

 the Red Grouse of Scotland, or the Spotted Grouse of North America. 



The curious notes emitted in the love season are peculiar to the male. 

 When the receptacles of air, which in form, colour, and size, resemble a 

 small orange, are perfectly inflated, the bird lowers its head to the ground, 

 opens its bill, and sends forth, as it were, the air contained in these bladders 

 in distinctly separated notes, rolling one after another from loud to low, and 

 producing a sound like that of a large muffled drum. This done, the bird 

 immediately erects itself, refils its receptacles by inhalation, and again 

 proceeds with its footings. I frequently observed in those Prairie Hens 

 which I had tamed at Henderson, that after producing the noise, the bags 

 lost their rotundity, and assumed the appearance of a burst bladder, but that 

 in a few seconds they were again inflated. Having caught one of the birds, 

 I passed the point of a pin through each of its air-cells, the consequence of 

 which was, that it was unable to toot any more. With another bird I per- 

 formed the same operation on one only of the cells, and next morning it 

 tooted with the sound one, although not so loudly as before, but could not 

 inflate the one which had been punctured. The sound, in my opinion, 

 cannot be heard at a much greater distance than a mile. All my endeavours 

 to decoy this species, by imitating its curious sounds, were unsuccessful, 

 although the Ruffed Grouse is easily deceived in this manner. As soon as 

 the strutting and fighting are over, the collapsed bladders are concealed by 

 the feathers of the ruff, and during autumn and winter are much reduced in 

 size. These birds, indeed, seldom, if ever, meet in groups on the scratching 

 grounds after incubation has taken place; at all events, I have never seen 

 them fight after that period, for, like the Wild Turkeys, after spending a 

 few weeks apart to recover their strength, they gradually unite, and as soon 

 as the young are grown up, individuals of both sexes mix with the latter, 

 and continue in company till spring. The young males exhibit the bladders 

 and elongated feathers of the neck before the first winter, and by the next 

 spring have attained maturity, although, as in many other species, they 

 increase in size and beauty for several years. 



As I have never shot these birds in the Eastern States, and therefore 

 cannot speak from experience of the sport which they afford, I here intro- 

 duce a very interesting letter from a well known sportsman, my friend 



