268 
RUFFED GROUSE. 
ring noise, and flies with great vigor through the woods, beyond reach 
of view, before it alights. With a good dog, however, they are easily 
found ; and at some times exhibit a singular degree of infatuation, by 
looking down, from the branches where they sit, on the dog below, who, 
the more noise he keeps up, seems the more to confuse and stupefy 
them, so that they may be shot down, one by one, till the whole are 
killed, without attempting to fly off. In such cases, those on the lower 
limbs must be taken first, for should the upper ones be first killed, in 
their fall they alarm those below, who immediately fly off. In deep 
snows they are usually taken in traps, commonly dead-traps, supported 
by a figure 4 trigger. At this season, when suddeidy alarmed, they 
frequently dive into the snow, particularly when it has newly fallen, 
and coming out at a considerable distance, again take wing. They are 
pretty hard to kill, and will often carry off a large load to the distance 
of two hundred yards, and drop down dead. Sometimes in the depth 
of winter they approach the farm house, and lurk near the barn, or 
about the garden. They have also been often taken young and tamed, 
so as to associate with the fowls; and their eggs have frequently been 
hatched under the common hen ; but these rarely survive until full 
grown. They are exceedingly fond of the seeds of grapes ; occasion- 
ally- 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 Octo- 
ber. At this season they feed chiefly on whortleberries, and the little 
red aromatic partridgeberries, the last of which gives their flesh a pecu- 
liar delicate flavor. 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 eat freely of the flesh of the Pheasant, after emptying it 
of large quantities of laurel buds, without experiencing any bad conse- 
quences, yet, from the respectability of those, some of them eminent 
physicians, who have particularized cases in which it has proved delete- 
rious, and even fatal, I am inclined to believe that in certain cases 
