UPLAND SHOOTING. 
63 
from a little before day-break to eight or nine o’clock in the 
morning, when the parties separate to seek for food. 
“ Fresh-ploughed fields in the vicinity of their resorts are 
sure to be visited by these birds, every morning, and frequently 
also in the evening. On one of these I counted, at one time, 
seventeen males, most of whom were in the attitude repre¬ 
sented, making such a continued sound as, I am persuaded, 
might have been heard more than a mile off. The people of 
the Barrens informed me that when the weather becomes se¬ 
vere, with snow, they approach the barn and farm-house^ and 
are sometimes seen sitting on the fields in the Indian corn, seem¬ 
ing almost domesticated. At such times great numbers are taken 
in traps. No pains, however, on regular plans, have ever been 
persisted in, as far as I was informed, to domesticate these 
delicious birds. A Mr. Reid, who lives between the Pilot- 
Knobs and Bairdstown, told me that, a few years ago, one of his 
sons found a Grouse’s nest, with fifteen eggs, which he brought 
home and immediately placed beneath a hen then sitting, tak¬ 
ing away her own. The nest of the Grouse was on the 
ground, under a tussock of long grass, formed with very little 
art and few materials. The eggs were brownish white, and 
about the size of a pullet’s. In three or four days, the whole 
were hatched. Instead of following the Hen, they compelled 
her to move after them, distracting her with the extent and di¬ 
versity of their wanderings ; and it was a day or two before they 
seemed to understand her language, or consent to be guided by 
her. They were let out to the fields, where they paid little 
regard to their nurse, and, in a few days, only three of them re¬ 
mained. These became exceedingly tame and familiar, were 
most expert fly-catchers, but soon after they also disappeared. 
“ On dissecting these birds, the gizzard was found extremely 
muscular, having almost the hardness of a stone; the heart 
remarkably large ; the crop was filled with briar-knots, con¬ 
taining the larviB of some insect, quantities of a species of 
green lichen, small, hard seeds, and some grains of Indian Corn.” 
— Wilson*s Am. Ornith. 
VOL. i. 
7 
