XH PEEFACE. 



The woodcock of the United States is smaller 

 than his European congener and has no other re- 

 semblance to Scolopax rusticola than the plumage, 

 the identity of which is perfect. Follow the course 

 of a stream on the morning of the 4th of July; 

 penetrate the swamps of some marshy wood, or the 

 windings of a thick cane-brake, and at every step 

 your good pointer will be stopped, and a cock get up 

 from before the very end of his nose. From that 

 moment, all depends on your own skill. One morn- 

 ing in the woods of Tarry Town, on the banks of 

 the Hudson, a friend and myself in two hours had 

 emptied om^ powder-flasks and bagged fifty -five 

 cocks. We had missed double the number. 



The American partridge {Tetrao coturnix) is a small 

 bird, scarcely so large as a full-sized European quail, 

 and its plumage very closely resembles that of our 

 gray partridge. It resembles it moreover in its 

 habits, and knows better than to perch like a tlu'ush, 

 when there 's danger afoot. How many times on 

 the heights of Hoboken, towards the right bank 

 of the Hudson, or in the thickets of Long Island, 

 some leagues from New York, have I amused m}'- 

 seK with following up from point to point one or two 

 large bevies of these birds, which rise and go off 

 with a tremendous noise, and only scatter when they 

 have thoroughly comprehended the impossibility of 

 resistance. The flight of the American partridge is 



