Identifier: americangamebird00murp (find matches)
Title: American game bird shooting
Year: 1882 (1880s)
Authors: Murphy, John Mortimer
Subjects: Game and game-birds Hunting
Publisher: New York, Orange Judd
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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if two meet, they indulge in fierce battles, whichterminate only by the flight or death of one of them.When they are calling. the air reservoirs, which arealternately filled and emptied, jiroduce sounds not unlikethe roll of a muflfled drum. Tliis roll can be heard amile away in calm weather; but if the skin is puncturedit ceases to be resonant. As soon as the love season isover, the hens leave the males and build their nestsof grass and leaves in the open prairie or under the shel-ter of a bush. The number of eggs laid by each variesfrom ten to sixteen; these are a light-brownish color, ir-regularly spotted with black. If the first eggs are de-stroyed, another set is laid, but if not, only one broodis raised in a season. AVhen the young appear, the mother displays thegreatest solicitude for their welfare, and keeps steadilycalling to them whenever they manifest a disposition tostray from her side. If a man approaches them she ruf-fles up her feathers and assumes a combative attitude.
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THE PINNATED GROUSE. 63 but she seldom flies at him, preferring to lead him awayfrom them by various artifices. She warns the brood ofdanger by a single loud cluck, and the moment they hearit they disperse in every direction, and squat so close tothe ground, in the tall grass or grain, that it is almostimpossible to detect them without the aid of a dog.They remain in cover until the mother announces thatthe danger is over and calls them to her side. They are so fully developed by the fifteenth of Au-gust, although only hatched in June, that they affordexcellent sport, as they are strong on the wing, and theirflight, though regular, is rather swift. Being fast run-ners, they generally try to escape on foot before attempt-ing to use their pinions. The young males are soexceedingly combative, that members of the same broodindulge in contests in the autumn, but these are generallysuppressed by the mother before they lead to bloodshed. Audubon says that the males which he had domesti-cated

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