132 GAME BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA. 



the wild berries, the partridge berry and cranberry being their 

 favorite food. 



They are to be found in all parts of the island, but the bare 

 highlands, where they are covered with berry-bearing plants, are 

 their favorite localities. In clear weather they are found about the 

 skirts of the woods and in the tucking bushes, and are then very 

 wild and difficult to reach. When the weather is foggy, however, 

 they come out on the barrens and marshes, and are then very 

 tame, merely flying a few yards even when shot at, before they 

 alight again. It is quite customary there to despatch a box of 

 partridges in a frozen state to friends in Scotland and England 

 about Christmas ; and a most acceptable present they prove. 

 Owing to the great number of sportsmen who go in pursuit of the 

 partridges, they are becoming every year scarcer in the neighbor- 

 hood of St. Johns, and to get a thoroughly good day's shooting it 

 is necessary to travel many miles. 



In certain localities they are very abundant, and to the sports- 

 man there can be nothing finer than a day's partridge-shooting 

 over the breezy " barrens " of Newfoundland during the fine au- 

 tumn weather. The air is then cool and exhilarating, and the 

 bright skies, the weird and charming scenery, varied by countless 

 lakes ; the low, rounded hills, covered to the summit with the 

 tapering firs ; the lakelets bright with the white and yellow water 

 lilies ; the woods assuming everywhere the golden tints of autumn, 

 the wild flowers still abundant, the bold headlands along the coast 

 through whose summits glimpses of the restless Atlantic are ob- 

 tained — all these, with the excitement of the sport, combine to fur- 

 nish to the lover of nature a day of rapturous enjoyment. It is a 

 thrilling moment to the genuine sportsman when, gun in hand and 

 dog at foot, he finds himself among the partridge coverts. His 

 faithful Rover scents the game ; every nerve in his frame quivers 

 as step by step he thoughtfully and cautiously advances toward 

 the unseen tovey : then suddenly pausing, with one fore paw bal- 

 anced lightly, and every limb and muscle rigid as iron, the beau- 

 tiful animal is at once transformed into a marble statue. Pres- 

 ently a whirr is heard, and with a loud " ca, ca, ca," a magnificent 

 old cock rises on the wing. Crack goes the gun and down tumbles 

 the great bird, the scarlet tips over his eyes glistening like rubies, 



