22 
RUFFED GROUS. 
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; occasionally eat ants, chestnuts, black berries, 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 
gives their flesh a peculiar delicate flavour. With the former 
our mountains ai’e 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 huds, without experiencing any bad consequences, yet, 
from the respectability of those, some of them eminent physi- 
cians, who have particularized 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 
