THE PINNATED GROUSE. 
103 
sometimes do, it is almost impossible to start them a second time, as there 
are no trees or large objects to mark their flight. Being mostly covered 
with scrub oaks of a uniform height, with occasional mossy hollows, it affords 
them a place of refuge, into which they fly for protection, but from which 
they soon emerge, when the danger is past, to their more favourite haunts. 
“ I have only seen them in the month of November, but I am told that in 
the spring of the year, previous to the season of incubation, they congregate 
in large companies, in particular places, where they hold a grand tournament, 
fighting with great desperation, and doing one another all the mischief 
possible. In these chosen spots, it is said the cunning natives were accus- 
tomed to strew ashes, and rush upon them with sticks when blinded by the 
dust which they had raised. In later times, the custom of baiting them has 
proved more destructive to the species. In this way, very great but very 
uns^)rtsman-like shots have often been made. Another practice has been 
that of stealing upon them unawares, guided by that peculiar sound for 
which they are remarkable in the spring of the year, called ‘ tooting.’ By 
these and other means, to which I have adverted, the birds were diminish- 
ing in numbers from year to year ; but it is to be hoped that they will revive 
again, as they are now protected by an act of the State of Massachusetts, 
passed in 1831 , which limits the time of shooting them to the months of 
November and December, and imposes a penalty of ten dollars each bird, 
for all that are killed, except in those two months.” 
In the western country, at the approach of winter, these birds frequent 
the tops of the sumach bushes, to feed on their seeds, often in such numbers 
that I have seen them bent by their weight ; and I have counted more than 
fifty on a single apple tree, the buds of which they entirely destroyed in a 
few hours. They also alight on high forest trees on the margins of large 
rivers, such as the Mississippi, to eat grapes and the berries and leaves of the 
parasitical mistletoe. During several weeks which I spent on the banks of 
the Mississippi, above the mouth of the Ohio, I often observed flocks of 
them flying to and fro across the broad stream, alighting at once on the 
highest trees with as much ease as any other bird. They were then so 
abundant that the Indians, with whom I was in company, killed them with 
arrows whenever they chanced to alight on the ground or low bushes. 
During the sowing season, their visits to the wheat and corn fields are 
productive of considerable damage. They are fond of grasshoppers, and 
pursue these insects as chickens are wont to do, sometimes to a distance of 
thirty or forty yards. They drink water like the common fowl when at 
liberty, and like all other species of this family, are. fond of dusting them- 
selves in the paths, or among the earth of the fields. 
I have often observed them carry their tails in the manner of the common 
