70 
FRANK FORESTER’S FIELD SPORTS. 
kind of food has been long continued, and the birds allowed to 
remain undrawn for several days, until the contents of the crop 
and stomach have had time to diffuse themselves through the 
flesh, as is too often the case, it may be unwholesome, and even 
dangerous. Great numbers of these birds are brought to our 
markets at all times during fall and winter, some of which are 
brought from a distance of more than a hundred miles, and have 
been probably dead a week or two, unpicked and undrawn, 
before they are purchased for the table. 
u Regulations prohibiting them from being brought to market, 
unless picked and drawn, would very probably be a sufficient 
security against all danger. At these inclement seasons, how¬ 
ever, they are lean and dry, and, indeed, at all times, their flesh 
is far inferior to that of the Pinnated Grouse. They are usually 
sold in Philadelphia market at from three-quarters of a dollar 
to a dollar.and a quarter a pair,—sometimes higher.”— Wilson's 
Am. Ornith. 
The last of this species which it is worth our while to notice 
as a sporting bird, is the Canada Grouse, and even it, although 
Mr. Audubon speaks of it as abundant in parts of Maine, and 
although it unquestionably exists in the north-eastern angle of 
New York, is so rarely met, and so shy, as to be known to very 
few of our sportsmen. 
The Willow Grouse, or Willow Ptarmigan, perhaps the 
most beautiful of all the American species, and perhaps to be 
met with in the extreme north of Maine, is too uncommon to be 
classed as game. I fear, indeed, that few of my readers will 
ever have the good fortune to kill the beautiful little Grouse of 
which we are now speaking. I doubt whether it would ever lie 
to dogs. It is a solitary forest bird. 
