108 
BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA . 
Northern and Eastern Birds” says: “ From several instances which 
have come to my knowledge, I am inclined to think that the female 
Ruffed Grouse, if persistently molested when nesting on the ground, 
avails herself of the abandoned nest of a crow, or the shelter afforded in 
eggs. Two of my collectors in northern Maine have sent me eggs 
which they positively declared were found in a crow’s nest in a high 
pine, but which are undoubtedly of this species; and recently I have 
heard of another occurrence from my friend L. E. Ricksecker, of Penn¬ 
sylvania. The only satisfactory theory that I can advance to account 
for these departures from the usual habits of the grouse, is that the 
birds had been much disturbed, their eggs or young perhaps destroyed; 
and as they are often in th6 trees, and are expert climbers, they laid 
their eggs in these lofty situations to secure protection from their 
numerous foes below.” 
Pheasants are woodland birds, but I have observed, when hunting 
them in the fall, that they often leave the woods and are found feeding 
about the edges of fields, along the borders of woods or thickets. When 
in such places two gunners can, if they are fair marksmen, generally 
have good success, if one goes along the edge of the woods and his com¬ 
panion takes the open territory. Hon. Nathan C. Evans, of Bedford 
county, informs me he has examined the crops of hundreds of these 
birds killed in the fall and ascertained that they subsist to a considerable 
extent on the leaves and blossoms of red clover. Forty-two Pheasants, 
taken in the months of October, November and December, in Schuylkill, 
Dauphin, Warren, Chester, Erie and Lancaster counties, which I have 
examined, were found to have fed mainly on Partridge berries, chest¬ 
nuts, small seeds and other vegetable matter ; ten of this lot—shot when 
the snow was deep—were all gorged with buds of laurel. The stomach 
contents of twenty-two Pheasants, captured in Wayne, Susquehanna and 
Wyoming counties December, 1889, and identified by my kind friend, 
Benjamin M. Everhart, of West Chester, consisted principally of the 
Fern (Aspidium spinulosum , Swartz, var., intermedium , Willd.), and 
False Mitre-wort ( Tiarella cor difolia, L.) with some few leaves and a 
little fruit of the Partridge berry ( Mitcliella repens L.). Wilson writing 
of their food says: “ They are exceedingly fond of the seeds of grapes ; 
occasionally eat ants, chestnuts, blackberries and various vegetables. 
It has been confidently asserted that, after having fed for some time 
on the laurel buds, their flesh becomes highly dangerous to eat of, par¬ 
taking of the poisonous qualities of the plant, f * * * 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 conse- 
* Prof. John H. Brinton. M. D., of the Jefferson Medical College. Philadelphia. Pa., informed me that 
he had known of several cases of Glossitis (inflammation of the tongue) to have been caused by eating 
Pheasants which had fed on laurel.— Warren. 
