NORTHERN OCEAN, 
ral, like the Wood Partridge, either exceeding 
wild or very tame; and when in the latter hu- 
mour, I have known one man kill one hundred 
and twenty in a few hours; for as they ufually 
keep in large flocks, the fportf{man can frequent- 
ly kill fix or eight ata fhot. ‘Thefe, like the Wil- 
low Partridge, change their plumage in Summer 
to a beautiful {peckled brown; and at that feafon 
are fo hardy, that, unlefs fhot in the head or vi- 
tals, they will fly away with the greateft quantity 
of fhot of any bird I know. ‘They difcover 
great fondnefs for their young; for during the 
time of incubation, they will frequently fuffer 
themfelves to be taken by hand off their eggs*. 
Pigeons of a {mall fize, not larger than a thrufh, 
are in fome Summers found as far North as 
Churchill River. The bill is of a flefh-colour, 
legs red, and the greateft part of the plumage of 
a light lilac or blufh. In the interior parts of the 
country they fly in large flocks, and perch on the 
Ee 2 poplar 
* Befides the birds already mentioned, which form a conftant difh at our 
tables in Hudfon’s Bay, during their refpective feafons, Mr. Jerome afferts, 
that during the time he was Governor at York Fort, the buftard was com- 
mon, But fince that Fort was delivered up to the Englifh at the peace of 
Utrecht in 1713, none of the Company’s fervants have ever feen one of 
thofe birds: nor does it appear by all the Journals now in the pofleffion 
of the Huadfon’s Bay Company, that any fuch bird was ever feen in the 
moft Southern parts of the Bay, much lefs at York Fort, which is in the 
latitude 57° North; fo that a capital error, or a wilful defign to miflead, 
mutt have taken place. Indeed, his account of the country immédiately 
where he refided, and the produétions of it, are fo erroneonfly ftated as 
to deferve nonotice. His colleague, Dele Potries, afferts the exiftence of 
the buftard in-thofe parts, and with an equal regard to truth. 
419 
