. Report on the birds of Pennsylvania : with special reference to the food habits, based on over four thousand stomach examinations. Birds. 108 BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. Northern and Eastern Birds,'' says: " From several instances which have come to my knowledge, I am inclined to think that the female Ruffed Grouse, if persistently molested when nesting- on the ground, avails herself of the abandoned nest of a crow, or the shelter afforded in the top of some tall broken trunk of a tree, in which she deposits her eggs. Two of my collectors in northern Maine have sent me eggs which they positi
. Report on the birds of Pennsylvania : with special reference to the food habits, based on over four thousand stomach examinations. Birds. 108 BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. Northern and Eastern Birds,'' says: " From several instances which have come to my knowledge, I am inclined to think that the female Ruffed Grouse, if persistently molested when nesting- on the ground, avails herself of the abandoned nest of a crow, or the shelter afforded in the top of some tall broken trunk of a tree, in which she deposits her eggs. Two of my collectors in northern Maine have sent me eggs which they positively declared were found in a crow's nest in a high pine, but which are undoubtedly of this species ; and recently I have heard of another occurrence from my friend L. E. Ricksecker, of Penn- sylvania. The only satisfactory theory that I can advanc;e to account for these departures from the usual habits of the grouse, is that the birds had been much disturbed, their eggs or young perhaps destroyed; and as they are often in the trees, and are expert climbers, they laid their eggs in these lofty situations to secure protection from their numerous foes ; Pheasants are woodland birds, but I have observed, when hunting them in the fall, that they often leave the woods and are found feeding about the edges of fields, along the borders of woods or thickets. When in such places two gunners can, if they are fair marksmen, generally have good success, if one goes along the edge of the woods and his com- panion takes the open territory. Hon. Nathan C. Evans, of Bedford county, informs me he has examined the crops of hundreds of these birds killed in the fall and ascertained that they subsist to a considerable extent on the leaves and blossoms of red clover. Forty-two Pheasants, taken in the months of October, November and December, in Schuylkill, Dauphin, Warren, Chester, Erie and Lancaster counties, which I have examined, were found to have fed mainly on Partridge benies, ches
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