208 THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE BY LAND. 



We met with occasional tracks of tlie moose and 

 black bear, and at first a few ducks on the streams 

 and lakes ; but as we pierced further into the forest, 

 the waters were untenanted by wild fowl. Pigeons, 

 wood partridges, and pine partridges became very 

 plentiful, and we shot them at first in great numbers. 

 The wood partridge, or willow grouse, frequents the 

 thick woods and the low grounds, and is found on both 

 sides of the Eocky Mountains ; when disturbed, it 

 generally flies up into a tree, and if there are several 

 together, they tamely sit to be shot, one after the 

 other. In the spring, the male bird exhibits himself 

 for the delight of the female in the following manner. 

 He sits upon a branch, and rufiling his feathers, and 

 spreading his tail like a turkey-cock, shuts his eyes, 

 and drums against his sides with his mngs, pro- 

 ducing a sound remarkably like distant thunder. 

 When thus engaged, he becomes so absorbed in the 

 performance, that he will allow any one to approach 

 him near enough to snare him with a noose attached 

 to a short stick. By the middle of June, the par- 

 tridges were surrounded by broods of young, and we 

 ceased to hunt them. When we encountered them, 

 the hen bird, and often the cock also, would come 

 rushing up to within a couple of yards of us, with 

 wings spread, and feathers erect, just like a barn- 

 door hen protecting her chickens. The pine partridge 

 is rather larger than the willow grouse, darker- 

 feathered, like an English grouse, with a scarlet 

 patch over the eyes, and is found only in the " mus- 

 kegs " or pine swamps. The pigeon is the beautiful 

 long-tailed passenger pigeon, so common in the 



