OF BIRDS* 
185 
flying without great preparation, they are sometimes run 
down by greyhounds* 
The female makes her nest upon the ground, by merely 
scraping a hole, and lining it with a little straw or long 
grass. She lays two eggs, of a pale olive brown, diver- 
! sified with dark spots; and the young ones run about a$ 
soon as they are hatched. 
Wood Grous, or Cock of the Wood. (PI. 28.) 
This bird is nearly the size of a turkey, and often weighs 
twelve or fourteen pounds; but the female is considera- 
bly smaller. The head and neck are ash-coloured and 
crossed with black lines; the body and wings of a ches- 
nut brown; and the breast of a blackish glossy green.—*, 
i The plumage of the female is very different. 
This bird is chiefly found in mountainous and wooded 
Situations; though in summer he occasionally ventures 
from his retreats, to make short depredations on the far- 
mer’s corn. When in the recesses of the forest he at- 
taches himself principally to the oak and the pine tree; 
the cones of the latter serving him for food, and the 
branches affording him a habitation. He also feeds upon 
cranberries, ant’s eggs, and insects; and his gizzard, 
like that of domestic fowls, contains a quantity of gravel, 
which is supposed to assist his powers of digestion. 
The wood grous begins to feel the genial influence of 
spring at its earliest approach: and its courtship may be 
said to continue till the trees are entirely clothed with 
foliage and the forest in full bloom. During this season 
he may be seen, at sun-rise and setting, extremely active 
upon one of the largest branches of a pine-tree; his tail 
raised and expanded like a fan, his wings drooping, his 
neck stretched out, and his head swoln and red* His 
cry upon this occasion is a kind of loud explosion, fol- 
lowed by a noise like the whetring of a scythe; and as 
he now seems entirely deaf and insensible of danger, this 
is the time that sportsmen generally take to shoot him. 
Upon all other occasions he is the most timid and vigi- 
lant bird in nature. 
The female generally chooses a dry place and a mossy 
ground for the purpose of incubation. She lays six or 
r 2 
