UPLAND SHOOTING. 
69 
alarmed, they frequently dive into the snow, particularly when 
it has newly fallen, and coming out at a considerable distance, 
again take wing. They are pretty hard to kill, and will often 
carry off a large load to the distance of two hundred yards, and 
drop down dead. Sometimes in the depth of winter they ap¬ 
proach the farm-house, and lurk near the barn or about the 
garden. They have, also, been often taken young, and tamed, 
so as to associate with the fowls ; and their eggs have frequently 
been hatched under the common Hen, but these rarely survive 
until full grown. They are exceedingly fond of the seeds of 
grapes, occasionally eat ants, chesnuts, blackberries, and vari¬ 
ous vegetables. Formerly they were numerous in the immedi¬ 
ate vicinity of Philadelphia, but as the woods were cleared, and 
population increased, they retreated to the interior. At present 
there are very few to be found within several miles of the city, 
and those only singly in the most solitary and retired woody 
recesses. The Pheasant is in best order for the table in Sep¬ 
tember and October. At this season they feed chiefly on wor- 
tleberries, and the little aromatic partridgeberries, the last of 
which give the flesh a peculiar delicate flavor. With the former, 
our mountains are literally covered from August to November, and 
these 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 laurel. I have frequently found 
their crops distended with a large handful of these latter alone, 
and it has been confidently asserted that after being fed for some 
time on the laurel buds, the 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 re¬ 
spectability 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 in certain cases, where this 
