GamE-BirDS AND PIGEONS. IgI 
that they came down from the mountains a few miles 
up the river and above tide-water. It was, in the 
closing years of the last century, a common sport, in- 
dulged in by all on the farms, to surround these birds, 
and when “a great host were gathered in a few trees, 
to fire at a given signal.” The old flint-locks, loaded 
with bits of nails and cut pieces of sheet-lead, seem 
now to be poor weapons indeed, but they wrought 
fearful havoc, and the representatives from different 
farms would go home each laden with a “big mess 
of pa’tridges.” In those days, too, they were netted 
in open places in the woods, and every man who 
went into the woods to cut firewood or fence-rails 
took a gun with him, and usually brought home some 
of these birds. A century has brought about won- 
derful changes in the bird-world, and while we are 
engaged in contemplating what is, and sometimes re- 
gretting the absence of what was, we seem never 
willing to consider what will be. It is a great mis- 
take. The pheasant would still be found even in our 
smallest bits of swamp and woodland, even away 
from the mountains, if given a chance. 
To stock a locality in May and kill every bird in 
November, as is done with quails, does not promise 
much for the future. 
« Ptarmigan may be said to be simply Grouse which turn white in 
winter. They are the only members of this family of birds in which 
such a remarkable seasonal change of plumage occurs. All the 
Ptarmigans are Grouse of boreal or alpine distribution, only reaching 
sea-level in the higher latitudes, elsewhere confined to mountains.” 
—COUvES. 
“The Willow Ptarmigan ranges through boreal 
