PREFACE. XV 



devoted to the passenger-pigeon ; but I should not 

 forget to mention here the countless flights of 

 thrushes, which in the United States yearly 

 darken the very air during the month of October. 

 Never is there such noisy chattering in the woods as 

 when that feathered tribe visits them. The robins 

 — as the Americans term these chattering thrushes, 

 cry out as loudly as if they were deaf, and deaf, 

 indeed, they must be, for the report of a gun does 

 not even make them resume their flight, and thus, 

 without quitting the cover in which the thrushes 

 have alighted, the sportsman may use his powder 

 and shot at his leisure, and fill his bag with ease. 



If we travel from the Northern States down west, 

 in the direction of Louisiana, we shall find species 

 of birds and animals which are unknown in the 

 colder climates of Massachusetts and New Eng- 

 land. This moimtainous country is well-wooded and 

 picturesquely divided by streams, ponds, and lakes 

 of every dimension. The forests are composed of 

 pine, birch, cedar, wild cherry, hawthorn, sweet 

 brier, and willows. Here and there handsome oaks, 

 hazels, sumachs and canes, complete the vegetable 

 riches with which the soil is covered. In the 

 thickets which the sportsman penetrates, and in 

 the full undergrowth of the prairies, he finds at 

 every step recent traces of game, and he sees flying 

 from him in thousands birds of brilliant plumage, 



