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." 

 COUES. 



"The Willow Ptarmigan ranges through boreal 



