110 PINNATED GROUS. 



In convenient places they have been known to enter cleared fields, 

 and regale themselves on the leaves of clover; and old gunners 

 have reported that they have been known to trespass upon patches 

 of buckwheat, and pick up the grains. 



" Migration, — They are stationary, and never known to quit 

 their abode. There are no facts showing in them any disposition 

 to migration. On frosty mornings and during snows, they perch 

 on the upper branches of pine trees. They avoid wet and swampy 

 places ; and are remarkably attached to dry ground. The low and 

 open brush is preferred to high shrubbery and thickets. Into these 

 latter places, they fly for refuge when closely pressed by the hun- 

 ters; and here, under a stiff and impenetrable cover, they escape 

 the pursuit of dogs and men. Water is so seldom met with on the 

 true grouse-ground, that it is necessary to carry it along for the 

 pointers to drink. The flights of Grouse are short, but sudden, 

 rapid and whirring. I have not heard of any success in taming 

 them. They seem to resist all attempts at domestication. In this 

 as well as in many other respects, they resemble the Quail of New 

 York, or the Partridge of Pennsylvania. 



" Manners, — During the period of mating, and while the fe- 

 males are occupied in incubation, the males have a practice of as- 

 sembling, principally by themselves. To some select and central 

 spot where there is very little underwood, they repair from the ad- 

 joining district. From the exercises performed there, this is called 

 a scratching-place. The time of meeting is the break of day. As 

 soon as the light appears, the company assembles from every side, 

 sometimes to the number of forty or fifty. When the dawn is past, 

 the ceremony begins by a low tooting from one of the cocks. This 

 is answered by another. They then come forth one by one from 

 the bushes, and strut about with all the pride and ostentation they 

 can display. Their necks are incurvated; the feathers on them 

 are erected into a sort of ruff; the plumes of their tails are ex- 

 panded like fans ; they strut about in a style resembling, as nearly 



