PINNATED GROUSE. 
829 
For me it remains to repeat my joy at the opportunity 
your invitation has afforded me to contribute somewhat 
to your elegant work, and at the same time to assure 
you of my earnest hope that you may be favoured with 
ample means to complete it. 
“ Samuel L. Mitchell/* 
Duly sensible of the honour of the foregoing com- 
munication, and grateful for the good wishes with 
which it is concluded, I shall now, in farther elucidation 
of the subject, subjoin a few particulars properly 
belonging to my own department. 
It is somewhat extraordinary that the European 
naturalists, in their various accounts of our different 
species of grouse, should have said little or nothing of the 
one now before us, which, in its voice, manners, and 
peculiarity of plumage, is the most singular, and, in its 
flesh, the most excellent, of all those of its tribe that 
inhabit the territory of the United States. It seems to 
have escaped Catesby during bis residence and different 
tours through this country, and it was not till more 
than twenty years after his return to England, viz. in 
1743, that he first saw some of these birds, as he 
informs us, at Cheswick, the seat of the Earl of Wil- 
mington. His lordship said they came from America ; 
but from what particular part, could not tell.* Buffon 
has confounded it with the ruffed grouse, the common 
partridge of New England, or pheasant of Pennsylvania 
(tetrao umbellus) ; Edwards and Pennant have, how- 
ever, discovered that it is a different species ; but have 
said little of its note, of its flesh, or peculiarities ; for, 
alas ! there was neither voice, nor action, nor delicacy 
of flavour in the shrunk and decayed skin from which 
the former took his figure, and the latter his descrip- 
tion ; and to this circumstance must be attributed the 
barrenness and defects of both. 
This rare bird, though an inhabitant of different and 
very distant districts of North America, is extremely 
* Catesby, Car . p. 101, App. 
