42 
Willow 
Partridge. 
A JOURNEY TO THE 
{pe& todhynels; formetimes not fuflering aman 
to come within two gun-fhots, and at others fo 
tame that the {portfman may kill five or fix out 
of one tree without fhifting his ftation. They 
are feen in fome years-in confiderable numbers 
near York Fort. They arevery fcarce at Church- 
ill, though numerous in the interior parts, parti- 
cularly on the borders of the Athapufcow Indians 
country, where I have feen my Indian com- 
panions kill many of them with blunt-headed 
arrows. In Winter their flefh is black, hard, and 
bitter, probably owing to the refinous quality of 
their food during that feafon.; but this isnot ob-' 
ferved in the rabbits, though they feed exactly 
in the fame manner in Winter: -on the contrary, 
their flefh is efteemed more delicate than that of 
the Englifh rabbit. The Southern Indians call- 
this fpecies of Partridge, Miftick-a-pethow ; and 
the Northern Indians.call it, Day. 
The Wittow Partriness havea ftrong black 
bill, with fcarlet eye-brows, very large and’beau- 
tiful inthe male, but lefs.confpicuous‘in the fe- 
male. In Summer they are brown, elegantly 
barred and mottled with orange, white, and 
black; and at that feafon the males are -very 
proud. and handfome, ‘but ‘the females are lefs” 
beautiful, being of one univerfal brown. <As‘the’ 
Fall advances they change ‘to a delicate white, 
except fourteen black feathers‘in the tail, which 
are alfo tipped with white; and their legs and 
feet, quite down to the nails, are warmly covered 
with 
