DCHP-1 Online
fool hen 
the spruce partridge and certain related species of grouse.
See also: Franklin's grouse galoot spruce partridge tree-grouse
- 1760 [They fare best towards Gabarus, where there is plenty of game, and where the woodcocks are so extremely tame, that you may knock them down with stones.]
- 1872 (1873) The spruce partridge or fool hen, that is oftener knocked over with a stick than shot.
- 1921 ". . . They are fool hens--Franklin's grouse--and that means that they'll set all day and let you pepper at 'em. . . ."
- 1956 The fool hen, a kind of grouse, was so called because it would sit quite still while a hunter came up close with a long thin stick on the end of which was a noose of fine sinew. This noose he would slip gently over the sitting fool hen's neck and pull the bird down.
- 1965 It wasn't the least bit like grabbing a fluttering fool hen.
- 1760 [They fare best towards Gabarus, where there is plenty of game, and where the woodcocks are so extremely tame, that you may knock them down with stones.]