1 68 Sarnia to Toronto. 



autumnal morning through the gorgeous scenery of the fall, 

 and then a day in covert, watching the motions of the lively 

 " cockers," returning in the evening to your stopping-place 

 with a bag containing eight or ten couples of plump cock, 

 conduce to render a day's sport with this game a delightful 

 change from the monotony of town life. The partridge or 

 pheasant, as it is not unfrequently called, the true name of 

 which is the ruffed grouse, is found in the woods all over the 

 country. It prefers hill-sides covered with groves of birch 

 or hemlock and spruce. It is by no means comparable to 

 the English partridge, and, eii passant, it eats better boiled 

 or stewed than in any other fashion. 



Grouse or partridge shooting commences on the 20th 

 August. Wild pigeon shooting in April, and after July, in 

 certain districts, affords good sport ; in the Niagara district, 

 and in the central part of the Huron district, the passenger 

 pigeon still resorts in such quantities that Audubon's graphic 

 description of the flights of wild pigeons ceases to appear 

 overdrawn. The great advent of them takes place about 

 once in five or seven years, and it is a curious coincidence 

 that in the same seasons the black squirrels are most abun- 

 dant ; the devastation caused by these countless hosts in the 

 wheat-fields is very great, and the numbers that can be killed 

 in a few hours render it irksome to bring home the spoil. 

 For several weeks in the fall the large .open fallow grass- 

 fields are frequented by large flocks of golden plover, which 

 stop here to rest before proceeding further southward. It is 

 amusing near the towns to see the excitement attendant on 

 their arrival. Every man or boy who can muster up a fire- 

 lock is out on the commons to blaze away at them as they 

 pass, and bang ! go a dozen guns pointed at the dense flock ; 

 then there is a general scramble for the slain, and those who 

 have loaded with perhaps only a little loose powder claim as 

 many of the birds as they ought to have put shot in their 

 barrels. Snipe are plentiful on all the marshes in September 



