PARTRIDGES. 295 



elapsed in this manner, when all at once I saw the eye of the 

 bird. There it sat, or rather stood, just where Rover pointed, 

 in an attitude so perfectly still and fixed with an outstretched 

 neck, and a body drawn out to such an unnatural length, that 

 twenty times must I have overlooked it, mistaking it for 

 a dead branch, which it most closely resembled. It was about 

 twenty feet from the ground, on a bough, and sat eight or 

 ten feet from the body of the tree. I shot it, and in the 

 course of the morning killed four more, which I came upon 

 much in the same way as I did upon the first. At one 

 of these my gun flashed three times, without its attempting 

 to move ; after which I drew the charge, loaded again, and 

 killed it. The dog all the time was barking and baying with 

 the greatest perseverance. There is, in fact, no limit to 

 the stupidity of these creatures ; and it is by no means un- 

 usual, on finding a whole covey on a tree in the Autumn, 

 to begin by shooting the bird which happens to sit lowest, 

 and then to drop the one above him, and so on till all are 

 killed."* 



Very different, indeed, from our straggling coveys, are the 

 assemblages of these birds in America. Near Fort Churchill, 

 on the shores of Hudson's Bay, in the Winter season, they 

 may be seen by thousands feeding on the willow-tops peeping 

 above the surface of the snow. The crew of a vessel wintering 

 there, killed one thousand eight hundred dozen in the course 

 of the season. They are provided with a plumage well calcu- 

 lated for the severe weather to which they are exposed, each 

 feather being in a manner doubled, so as to give additional 

 warmth. Our British Partridges huddle together in the 

 stubbles, but these birds shelter and roost by burrowing under 

 the snow : in the snow, too, they practise a common mode of 

 escaping observation and pursuit, as they will dive under it 

 as a Duck does in water, and rise at a considerable distance. 

 The Indians, as well as European settlers, catch them in great 

 abundance in traps, and live upon them throughout their long 

 Winter. 



* CAPTAIN HEAD'S Forest Scenery. 



