PINNATED GROUS. 109 



" Amours. — The season for pairing is in March, and the breed- 

 ing time is continued through April and May. Then the male 

 Grouse distinguishes himself by a peculiar sound. When he ut^ 

 ters it, the parts about the throat are sensibly inflated and swelled. 

 It may be heard on a still morning for three or more miles ; some 

 say they have perceived it as far as five or six. This noise is a sort of 

 ventriloquism. It does not strike the ear of a bystander with much 

 force; but impresses him with the idea, though produced within 

 a few rods of him, of a voice a mile or two distant. This note is 

 highly characteristic. Though very peculiar, it is termed tooting^ 

 from its resemblance to the blowing of a conch or horn from a re- 

 mote quarter. The female makes her nest on the ground, in re- 

 cesses very rarely discovered by men. She usually lays from ten 

 to twelve eggs. Their colour is of a brownish, much resembling 

 those of a Guinea-hen. When hatched, the brood is protected by 

 her alone. Surrounded by her young, the mother bird exceedingly 

 resembles a domestic hen and chickens. She frequently leads them 

 to feed in the roads crossing the woods, on the remains of maize 

 and oats contained in the dung dropped by the travelling horses. 

 In that employment they are often surprised by the passengers. 

 On such occasions the dam utters a cry of alarm. The little ones 

 immediately scamper to the brush; and while they are skulking 

 into places of safety, their anxious parent beguiles the spectator by 

 drooping and fluttering her wings, limping along the path, rolling 

 over in the dirt, and other pretences of inability to walk or fly. 



" Food, — A favourite article of their diet is the heath-hen plum, 

 or partridge-berry before mentioned. They are fond of hurtle-ber- 

 ries, and crane-berries. Worms and insects of several kinds arQ 

 occasionally found in their crops. But in the winter they subsist 

 chiefly on acorns, and the buds of trees which have shed their 

 leaves. In their stomachs have been sometimes observed the leaves 

 of a plant supposed to be a winter green; and it is said, when they 

 are much pinched, they betake themselves to the buds of the pine. 



VOL. nr. E e 



