RUFFED GROUSE. 



257 



grapes ; occasionally eat ants, chestnuts, blackberries, and 

 various vegetables. Formerly they were numerous in the 

 immediate vicinity of Philadelphia ; but as the woods were 

 cleared and population increased, they retreated to the interior. 



At present there are very few to be found within several 

 miles of the city, and those only singly, in the most solitary 

 and retired woody recesses. 



The pheasant is in best order for the table in September 

 and October. At this season they feed chiefly on whortle- 

 berries, and the little red aromatic partridge-berries ; the last 

 of which give their flesh a peculiar delicate flavour. With 

 the former our mountains are literally covered from August 

 to November, and these constitute, at that season, the greater 

 part of their food. During the deep snows of winter, they 

 have recourse to the buds of alder and the tender buds of the 

 laurel. I have frequently found their crops distended with a 

 large handful of these latter alone ; and it has been confidently 

 asserted, that, after having fed for some time on the laurel 

 buds, their flesh becomes highly dangerous to eat of, partaking 

 of the poisonous qualities of the plant. The same has been 

 asserted of the flesh of the deer, when, in severe weather and 

 deep snows, they subsist on the leaves and bark of the laurel. 

 Though I have myself ate freely of the flesh of the pheasant, 

 after emptying it of large quantities of laurel buds, without 

 experiencing any bad consequences, yet, from the respec- 

 tability of those, some of them eminent physicians, who have 

 particularised cases in which it has proved deleterious, and 

 even fatal, I am inclined to believe that, in certain cases, 

 where this kind of food has been long continued, and the birds 

 allowed to remain undrawn for several days, until the contents 

 of the crop and stomach have had time to diffuse themselves 

 through the flesh, as is too often the case, it may be unwhole- 

 some, and even dangerous. Great numbers of these birds are 

 brought to our markets at all times during fall and winter, 

 some of which are brought from a distance of more than a 



hundred miles, and have been probably dead a week or two, 

 vol. 11. R 



