PINNATED GROUSE. 



403 



of dew, and drops of rain, water is very rarely to be met with. 

 For the space of a week he watched her closely, to discover 

 whether she still refused to drink ; but, though she was con- 

 stantly fed on Indian-corn, the cup and water still remained 

 untouched and untasted. Yet no sooner did he again sprinkle 

 water on the bars of the cage, than she eagerly and rapidly 

 picked them off as before. 



The last, and, probably, the strongest inducement to then- 

 preferring these plains, is the small acorn of the shrub oak ; the 

 strawberries, huckleberries, and partridge-berries, with which 

 they abound, and which constitute the principal part of the food 

 of these birds. These brushy thickets also afford them excellent 

 shelter, being almost impenetrable to dogs or birds of prey. 



In all these places where they inhabit, they are, in the 

 strictest sense of the word, resident ; having their particular 

 haunts, and places of rendezvous (as described in the preced- 

 ing account), to which they are strongly attached. Yet they 

 have been known to abandon an entire tract of such country, 

 when, from whatever cause it might proceed, it became again 

 covered with forest. A few miles south of the town of York, 

 in Pennsylvania, commences an extent of country, formerly 

 of the character described, now chiefly covered with wood, but 

 still retaining the name of Barrens. In the recollection of an 

 old man born in that part of the country, this tract abounded 

 with grouse. The timber growing up, in progress of years, 

 these birds totally disappeared ; and, for a long period of time, 

 he had seen none of them, until, migrating with his family to 

 Kentucky, on entering the Barrens, he one morning recog- 

 nised the well-known music of his old acquaintance, the 

 grouse ; which, he assures me, are the very same with those 

 he had known in Pennsylvania. 



But what appears to me the most remarkable circumstance 

 relative to this bird, is, that not one of all those writers who 

 have attempted its history, have taken the least notice of those 

 two extraordinary bags of yellow skin which mark the neck of 

 the male, and which constitute so striking a peculiarity. These 

 appear to be formed by an expansion of the gullet, as well as 



