56 
FRANK FORESTER’S FIELD SPORTS. 
of the bystander with much force, but impresses him with the 
idea, though produced within a few rods of him, of a voice a 
mile or two distant. This note is highly characteristic. Though 
very peculiar, it is termed tooting , from its resemblance to the 
blowing of a conch as heard from a remote quarter. 
u 4 The female makes her nest on the ground, in recesses very 
rarely discovered by man. She usually lays from ten to twelve 
eggs. Their color is of a brownish yellow, much resembling those 
of a Guinea-Hen. When hatched, the brood is protected by her 
alone. Surrounded by her young, the mother bird much resem¬ 
bles a domestic Hen and Chickens. She frequently leads them 
to feed in the roads crossing the woods, on the remains of maize 
and oats contained in the dung dropped by the travelling horses. 
In that employment they are often surprised by the passengers. 
On that occasion the dam utters a cry of alarm. The little ones 
immediately scamper to the brush, and while they are skulking 
into places of safety, their anxious parent beguiles the spectator 
by drooping and fluttering her wings, limping along the path, 
rolling over in the dirt, and other pretences of inability to walk 
or fly. 
“ 1 Food .—A favorite article of their diet is the Heath-Hen plum 
or partridge-berry, before mentioned ; they also use hurtleberries 
or cranberries. Worms and insects of several kinds are occasion¬ 
ally found in their crops. But in the winter they subsist chiefly 
on acorns and the buds of trees which have shed their leaves. 
In their stomachs have been sometimes observed the leaves of a 
plant supposed to be a winter-green ; and it is said when they 
are much pinched, they betake themselves to the buds of the 
pine. In convenient places they have been known to enter 
cleared fields and regale themselves on the leaves of clover, and 
old gunners hi.\ e reported that they have been known to tres¬ 
pass upon patches of buckwheat and peck up the grains. 
“ 4 Wigration .—They are stationary, and are never known to quit 
their abode. There are no facts showing in them any disposi¬ 
tion to migration. On frosty mornings, and during snow, they 
perch on the upper branches of pine trees. They avoid wet 
