222 WITH THE WOODLANDERS. 



that. This bird has more than once within my ex- 

 perience dashed down in flocks or huge coveys, 

 quite exhausted, on some parts of our foreshores. 

 Whether it was that a fog had sprung up and drifted 

 inshore from off the water, puzzling the birds on 

 their inland flights for all birds move at times so 

 that they had flown out to sea in the fog from the 

 French side of the water, at last making English 

 soil, no one knew. There the partridges were, and 

 for a time completely done for, so far as flying went. 

 Great numbers were easily captured by those who 

 had the luck to be strolling about where they settled 

 down, close to the water's edge. 



It is impossible, even now, to chronicle all the 

 remarkable movements of birds at different times, 

 for hundreds have not, one is sorry to say, the 

 least interest in such matters, beyond that of eat- 

 ing the birds that fall in their way. Where birds 

 not commonly seen can be disposed of, it is a 

 different matter then the pocket is benefited. 



The nimble little fellow, the quail, that visits us in 

 the spring and leaves us as a rule in the fall, might 

 be called a dwarf partridge. Some winter with us, 

 a few only at one time. I knew where he could be 



