loaded with their nests. In those parts of Eng- 

 land frequented by our common Wood-Pigeons, 

 the well-known rustling and rattling of a host of 

 wings, as a cloud of them rise from some favorite 

 haunt in the wood, will not easily be forgotten ; 

 but this clattering of flapping pinions is nothing 

 when compared to the uprising of these Ame- 

 rican flights, which is described as an absolute and 

 constant roaring, so loud and overpowering, 

 that persons on approaching the wood can with 

 difficulty hear each other speak. Amidst these 

 scenes of apparent bustle and confusion, there 

 reigns, notwithstanding, the most perfect regu- 

 larity and order. The old ones take their turns 

 regularly in feeding their young; and when any 

 of them are killed upon their nests, others imme- 

 diately supply their places. 



It has been said, that they only lay one egg 

 at a time, but this is not strictly true, many of 

 them laying two. But even at this rate, it 

 would be difficult to account for their vast num- 

 bers, without the further knowledge of their 

 prolific nature, and the rapid growth of the young 

 birds. Their sittings are renewed, Or rather 

 continued ; one pair having been thus known to 

 produce seven, and another, eight times in one 

 year. In twenty-three days from the laying of 

 the egg, the young ones could fly, being com- 

 pletely feathered on the eighth day. When the 

 broods are matured (with the exception of pro- 

 bably, some tons of the young, which are killed 

 and carried off by actual wagon-loads, being 

 more esteemed for food than the old ones), they 

 continue their course towards the north; from 

 whence, in December, they return in the same 

 dense mass, and are usually found to be remark- 

 ably fat; proving, that in the northern regions 

 they find an ample supply of food; and vast 

 indeed must be the stock, to furnish and fatten 

 such a swarm of hungry mouths. In the crop of 

 one of our common English Wood-Pigeons, just 

 killed, we found upwards of an ounce of the 

 fresh-budding leaves of clover, and in another, 

 mentioned by Mr. White, of Selborne, was found 

 an equal quantity of tender turnip-tops, so nice 

 and inviting, that the wife of the person who 

 shot it, boiled and ate them, as a delicate dish of 

 greens, for supper. The consumption of grains 

 of wheat by a common House-Pigeon, we found 

 to amount to two ounces in twenty -four hours ; 

 and in the following twenty-four hours, when 

 fed with peas, it consumed about the same weight. 

 Hence we may easily form some idea of the 

 enormous consumption of a large flight. Sup- 

 posing one Pigeon to feed regularly at the above 

 rate, its annual average supply would amount to 

 about fifty pounds in weight, — a serious con- 

 sumption of grain when large numbers are 

 concerned. The following calculation, made by 

 a very accurate observer, places the subject, as 

 far as relates to the American Wood-Pigeons, 

 in a still more striking point of vieAV. He saw 

 a column of Pigeons, one mile in breadth, 

 moving at the rate of one mile a minute, which, 

 as it was four hours in passing, made its whole 

 length 240 miles. He then calculated that each 

 square yard of this moving body contained three 

 Pigeons, which thus gave two thousand two hun- 

 dred and thirty millions, two hundred and 

 seventy-two thousand Pigeons ! and yet this he 



considered to be less than the real number. 

 Computing each of these to consume half-a-pint 

 of seed daily, the whole quantity would equal 

 seventeen millions four hundred and twenty-four 

 thousand bushels per day. Heaven, he adds, 

 has wisely and graciously given to these birds 

 rapidity of flight, and a disposition to range over 

 vast uncultivated tracts of the earth, otherwise 

 they must have perished in the districts where 

 they resided, or devoured the whole produc- 

 tions of agriculture, as well as those of the 

 forests. 



We conclude with some interesting and 

 lively descriptions of the Partridge : — 



Generally speaking, the Partridge is a much 

 shier bird than the Pheasant, and though we 

 have found it, in the above case, quitting its own 

 species to live with another, it can seldom be in- 

 duced to lay aside its natural habits, and become 

 quite tame. Occasionally, however, by great 

 care, they have been known to attach themselves 

 to man. 



In a clergyman's family, one was reared, 

 which became so familiar that it would attend 

 the parlour at breakfast, and other times; and 

 would afterwards stretch itself before the fire, 

 seeming to enjoy the warmth, as if it were 

 its natural bask on a sunny bank. The dogs of 

 the house never molested it, but unfortunately it 

 one day fell under the paws of a strange cat, and 

 was killed. 



The Partridge, as is well known, usually builds 

 in corn-fields, where, undisturbed, amidst a 

 forest of tall wheat-stems, it rears its brood. 

 Like other birds, it sometimes however chooses 

 a very different sort of nursery, as, for instance, 

 a hay-stack, on the top of which a nest was once 

 formed, a covey hatched, and safely carried off. 



In England we have but one sort, but in 

 France, and other parts of Europe, they have 

 beautiful;varieties, — the red-legged, Barbary Par- 

 tridges, &c. ; and in America, there are again 

 other sorts, peculiar to the New World. We 

 shall give Captain Head's lively description of 

 two varieties, the larch and spruce Partridges, 

 which he met with in his expedition into the 

 interior, near Lake Huron. 



" Early in the Spring," he says, " they make 

 their appearance in the pine-woods, welcomed 

 by the solitary back-settlers, not only as harbin- 

 gers of returning warmth, but as an agreeable 

 addition to their stock of provisions, and a source 

 of amusement. At first, when the snow still 

 covers the ground, they are easily tracked, though 

 by no means easily discovered in the trees, on 

 which these two species invariably perch. They 

 ran for a considerable distance from their pursu- 

 ers, before they rise, turning backwards and 

 forwards, and round and round, twisting about 

 the trees in such a manner as to make it difficult 

 to follow up the foot-marks, and but for the 

 assistance of dogs familiar with the sport, the 

 keenest eye is often foiled." Captain Head thus 

 describes his first meeting with one of these 

 birds : — 



" The snow in the woods was crisp from the 

 night's frost, and the sun was just rising in a 

 clear sky, when the marks of game attracted my 

 notice, and my spaniel at the same time evinced 



