THE LABRADOR JOURNAL 401 



rotten stump, about five feet from the ground; the aper- 

 ture, one and a quarter inches in diameter, was as round as 

 if made by a small Woodpecker, or a Flying-squirrel. The 

 hole inside was four by six inches ; at the bottom a bed 

 of chips was found, but the nest itself resembled a purse 

 formed of the most beautiful and softest hair imaginable, 

 — of Sables, Ermines, Martens, Hares, etc. ; a warmer and 

 snugger apartment no bird could desire, even in this cold 

 country. On leaving the wood we shot a Spruce Par- 

 tridge leading her young. On seeing us she ruffled her 

 feathers like a barnyard hen, and rounded within a few feet 

 of us to defend her brood; her very looks claimed our 

 forbearance and clemency, but the enthusiastic desire to 

 study nature prompted me to destroy her, and she was 

 shot, and her brood secured in a few moments ; the young 

 very pretty and able to fly. This bird was so very gray 

 that she might almost have been pronounced a different 

 species from those at Dennysville, Me., last autumn ; but 

 this difference is occasioned by its being born so much 

 farther north ; the difference is no greater than in Tetrao 

 umbellus J in Maine, and the same bird in western Pennsyl- 

 vania. We crossed a savannah of many miles in extent; 

 in many places the soil appeared to wave under us, and 

 we expected at each step to go through the superficial 

 moss carpet up to our middles in the mire ; so wet and so 

 spongy was it that I think I never labored harder in a 

 walk of the same extent. In travelling through this quag- 

 mire we met with a small grove of good-sized, fine white- 

 birch trees, and a few pines full forty feet high, quite a 

 novelty to us at this juncture. On returning to our boats 

 the trudging through the great bog was so . fatiguing 

 that we frequently lay down to rest; our sinews became 

 cramped, and for my part, more than once I thought I 

 should give up from weariness. One man killed a Falco 

 columbarius, in the finest plumage I have ever seen. I 



1 The Ruffed Grouse, Bonasa umbellus. — E. C. 

 vol. i. — 26 



