PINNATED GROUSE. 



405 



The people of the Barrens informed me, that, when the 

 weather becomes severe with snow, they approach the barn 

 and farmhouse, are sometimes seen sitting on the fences in 

 dozens, mix with the poultry, and glean up the scattered grains 

 of Indian-corn, seeming almost half domesticated. At such 

 times, great numbers are taken in traps. No pains, however, 

 or regular plan, has ever been persisted in, as far as I was in- 

 formed, to domesticate these delicious birds. A Mr Reed, 

 who lives between the Pilot Knobs and Bairdstown, told me, 

 that, a few years ago, one of his sons found a grouse's nest, 

 with fifteen eggs, which he brought home, and immediately 

 placed below a hen then sitting, taking away her own. The 

 nest of the grouse was on the ground, under a tussock of long 

 grass, formed with very little art, and few materials; the eggs 

 were brownish white, and about the size of a pullet's. In 

 three or four days the whole were hatched. Instead of follow- 

 ing the hen, they compelled her to run after them, distracting 

 her with the extent and diversity of their wanderings ; and it 

 was a day or two before they seemed to understand her lan- 

 guage, or consent to be guided by her. They were let out to 

 the fields, where they paid little regard to their nurse ; and, 

 in a few days, only three of them remained. These became 

 extremely tame and familiar ; were most expert flycatchers ; 

 but, soon after, they also disappeared. 



The pinnated grouse is nineteen inches long, twenty-seven 

 inches in extent, and, when in good order, weighs about three 

 pounds and a half ; the neck is furnished with supplemental 

 wings, each composed of eighteen feathers, five of which are 

 black, and about three inches long ; the rest shorter, also black, 

 streaked laterally with brown, and of unequal lengths ; the 

 head is slightly crested ; over the eye is an elegant semicircular 

 comb of rich orange, which the bird has the power of raising 

 or relaxing ; under the neck wings are two loose, pendulous, 

 and wrinkled skins, extending along the side of the neck for 

 two-thirds of its length; each of which, when inflated with air, 

 resembles in bulk, colour, and surface, a middle-sized orange ; 

 chin, cream coloured ; under the eye runs a dark streak of 



