Excerpt from The Gallinaceous Game Birds of North America: Including the Partridges, Grouse, Ptarmigan, and Wild Turkeys; With Accounts of Their Dispersion, Habits, Nesting, Etc;, And Full Descriptions of the Plumage of Both Adult and Young, Together With Their Popular and Scientific Names N 0 group of animals is more important to man than the one comprising the gallinaceous birds - the source from which has been derived the countless varieties of domesticated fowl distributed throughout the world. As articles Of food they are Of inestimable value, and the birds enter largely into the various accounts of trade. But beside the commercial aspect, which is important enough, the species present other attractions that appeal most strongly to those for whom this book was espe cially written, the sportsmen - viz., the pleasure they yield in the Chase, and the incentive they provide for action and effort, when, in the leafy aisles of the whisper ing forests, or in the thickets, and along the banks of the leaping stream, or on the open sky-encircled prairie, man in his quest for these game-like creatures, aided by his faithful dog, finds renewed health and strength to wrestle with the toils and troubles of his daily life. For accomplishing this result alone, even if in all their life and death they yielded no other, these birds were not created in vain. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.