658 
GALLINACEOUS BIRDS. 
So prompt, indeed, at times are their movements, that 
in the present season (November, 1831), in travelling 
nearly to the extremity of New Hampshire, not a single 
bird of the species was now to be seen, as they had, no 
doubt, migrated southward with the first threatening and 
untimely snow which had fallen, being indeed, so unus- 
ually abundant, previously to that period, as to sell 
in the market of Boston as low as 12^ cents apiece. 
Although elevated countries and rocky situations thickly 
overgrown with bushes and dense evergreens, by rivers 
and brooks, are their chosen situations, yet at times they 
frequent the low lands and more open pine forests in the 
vicinity of our northern towns and cities, and are even 
occasionally content to seek a retreat, far from their fa- 
vorite hills, in the depth of a Kentucky cane-brake. They 
are somewhat abundant in the shrubby oak barrens of 
Kentucky and Tennessee in which their food abounds. 
This consists commonly in the spring and fall, of the buds 
of treeSj the catkins of the hazel and alder, even fern 
buds, acorns* and seeds of various kinds, among which I 
have met with the capsules, including the seeds, of the 
common small Canadian Cistus ( Helianthemum ). At 
times, I have seen the crop almost entirely filled with the 
buds of the Apple tree, each connected with a portion of 
the twig, the wood of which appears to remain a good 
while undigested ; cinquefoil and strawberry leaves, buds 
of the Azaleas and of the broad-leaved Kalmia, with the 
favorite Partridge berries ( Gaultheria procumbent ), ivy 
berries ( Cissus hederacea , ), and gravel pebbles, are also 
some of the many articles which form the winter fare of 
our bird. In summer, they seem often to prefer berries 
of various kinds, particularly dew-berries, strawberries, 
grapes, and whortleberries. 
