12 
RURAL HOURS. 
it scarcely occurs half a dozen times in tlie course of a winter : and 
it is the same with the hoar-frost on the branches, which is by no 
means so common a spectacle as a Cockney might fancy. This 
morning both these specimens of winter's handiwork are united, 
and the effect is very fine, though it looks as if spring might yet 
be a hundred years off. 
Friday, \Oth. — A bunch of ten partridges brought to the 
house ; they are occasionally offered singly, or a brace or two at 
a time, but ten are a much larger number than are often seen 
together. Last autumn we frequently came upon these birds in 
the woods — they were probably more numerous than usual. Sev- 
eral times they even found their way down into the village, which 
we have never known them to do before ; once they were sur- 
prised in the churchyard, and twice they were found feeding 
among the refuse of oiu' own garden. 
When this valley was first peopled by the whites, quails were 
also found here in abundance, among the common game-birds of the 
region, but they have now abandoned us entirely ; one never hears 
of them, and it is said that they soon disappeared after the coun- 
try had been cleared. This is not according to their usual habits, 
for generally they are found to prefer the farm lands to the forest, 
feeding on different kinds of grain, building about fences, and 
rarely resorting to the woods. In some of the oldest parts of the 
country they are quite common, and so familiar, that in winter 
they will occasionally mingle with the poultry in the barn-yard. 
Instead of fearing the advance of civilization, they would delight 
in it, were it not for the sportsman's gun. It is true that in this 
county we approach the northern limits of the quail, for they are 
found from H:nduras to Massachusetts only; our Partridge or 
