PINNATED GROUS. 
29 
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 remote quarter. The female 
makes her nest on the ground, in recesses very rarely discov- 
ered 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. Surround- 
ed by her young, the mother bird exceedingly resembles a do- 
mestic 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-berries, and crane-berries. Worms and insects of several 
kinds are 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 ob- 
served' 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. 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. 
