RUFFED GROUSE. 
819 
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 pheasant, 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 
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 unwholesome and even dangerous. 
Great numbers of these birds are brought to our markets, 
at all times, during fall and winter ; some of which 
are brought from a distance of more than a hundred 
miles, and have been probably dead a week or two, 
unpicked and undrawn, before they are purchased for 
the table. Regulations, prohibiting them from being 
brought to market unless picked and drawn, would, 
very probably, be a sufficient security from all danger. 
At these inclement seasons, however, they are generally 
lean and dry ; and, indeed, at all times, their flesh is far 
inferior to that of the quail, or of the pinnated grouse. 
They are usually sold, in Philadelphia market, at from 
three quarters of a dollar to a dollar and a quarter 
a-pair, and sometimes higher. 
The pheasant, or partridge of New England, is 
eighteen inches long, and twenty-three inches in 
extent ; bill, a horn colour, paler below ; eye, reddish 
