RUFFED GROUSE. 
255 
pretty hard to kill, and will often carry off a large load to the 
distance of two hundred yards, and drop down dead. Some- 
times, 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 ; occasionally 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 October. At this season they feed chiefly on whortle- 
berries, and the little red aromatic partridgeberries ; the last 
of which give their flesh a peculiar delicate flavour. 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 ate freely of the flesh of the Phea- 
sant, after emptying it of large quantities of laurel buds, 
without experiencing any bad consequences, yet, from the 
respectability of those, some of them eminent physicians, 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 
