GAME-BIRDS AND PIGEONS. 191 
that they came down from the mountains a few miles 
up the river and above tide-water. It was, in the 
closing years of the last century, a common sport, in- 
dulged in by all on the farms, to surround these birds, 
and when “a great host were gathered in a few trees, 
to fire at a given signal.” The old flint-locks, loaded 
with bits of nails and cut pieces of sheet-lead, seem 
now to be poor weapons indeed, but they wrought 
fearful havoc, and the representatives from different 
farms would go home each laden with a ‘“ big mess 
of pa’tridges.” In those days, too, they were netted 
in open places in the woods, and every man who 
went into the woods to cut firewood or fence-rails 
took a gun with him, and usually brought home some 
of these birds. A century has brought about won- 
derful changes in the bird-world, and while we are 
engaged in contemplating what is, and sometimes re- 
gretting the absence of what was, we seem never 
willing to consider what will be. It is a great mis- 
take. The pheasant would still be found even in our 
smallest bits of swamp and woodland, even away 
from the mountains, if given a chance. 
To stock a locality in May and kill every bird in 
November, as is done with quails, does not promise 
much for the future. 
«Ptarmigan may be said to be simply Grouse which turn white in 
winter. They are the only members of this family of birds in which 
such a remarkable seasonal change of plumage occurs. All the 
Ptarmigans are Grouse of boreal or alpine distribution, only reaching 
sea-level in the higher latitudes, elsewhere confined to mountains.” 
—COUuES. 
“The Willow Ptarmigan ranges through boreal 
