The Zoologist— July, 1869. 1747 



walks soon after I landed on the island I came up with a small covey 

 of willow grouse and killed a brace, but owing to my dog — a borrowed 

 one, which was evidently more used to rushing into the water for 

 wounded seals and ducks, than retrieving grouse, — I was unable to get 

 another shot at the birds. Upon showing the brace I had killed to 

 the owner of the dog, on my return, the following conversation 

 ensued : — " Got two patiridges then, sir ?" " Yes." " All there was 

 there, I 'spose ?" *' Oh, no ; there were ten in all, I think." " Then 

 they was wild I 'spose, sir ? " " No, they allowed me to get suffi- 

 ciently near to kill one with each barrel as they rose." "What, sir, 

 you never fired at 'em to wing ! '' " Of course I did ; how would you 

 have me shoot at them ? " " Why, sir, if I had been there 1 should 

 have walked round and round them patiridges till I had got 'em all 

 in a heap, and then I should have killed nearly all at a shot : I never 

 heard of nobody firing at a pattridge to wing." If the settlers could 

 be induced to observe a close time for these and other valuable game 

 birds, the practice of shooting them in this apparently wholesale 

 manner would not greatly diminish their numbers. The willow grouse 

 is called the " partridge" by the settlers, and frequents beds of alder 

 and dwarf birch in swampy places, especially on the borders of lakes 

 and rivers. It breeds on the ground among stunted black spruce, in 

 rather drier situations. One peculiarity in the Newfoundland bird is, 

 that I have very rarely found the middle, or incumbent pair of tail- 

 coverts "entirely white" in winter, as they are stated to be in 'Birds 

 of North America,' p. 634. 



Rock Ptarmigan, L. rupestris {Gmelin). — A truly alpine species in 

 Newfoundland ; rarely found below the line of stunted black spruce, 

 except in the depth of winter, when they descend to the low land and 

 feed on the buds of dwarf trees, sometimes in company with the 

 willow grouse, but I never saw this species perch on trees : it is called 

 by the settlers the " mountain partridge." 



GfiUIDiE. 



I was informed by one of the settlers that a " brown crane" was 

 killed a few years since at Codroy, Newfoundland, and some others 

 seen. I am of opinion that they must have been " stragglers," and it 

 is therefore hard to determine the species. Did they really belong to 

 the genus Grus f 



