158 
THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY, 
from the crested hind-head shoot three narrow pointed 
feathers, that reach nearly six inches beyond the eye; 
lower part of the neck, breast, belly and whole body, a 
deep slate colour, with lighter reflections; the back is 
covered with long, flat, and narrow feathers, some of 
which are ten inches long, and extend four inches beyond 
the tail; the breast is also ornamented with a number of 
these long slender feathers; legs blackish green; inner side 
of the middle claw pectinated. The breast and sides of 
the rump, under the plumage, are clothed with a mass of 
yellowish white unelastic cottony down, similar to that in 
most of the tribe, the uses of which are not altogether un- 
derstood. Male and female alike in colour. 
The young birds of the first year are destitute of the 
purple plumage on the head and neck. Wilson. 
HUDSONIAN GODWIT. 
SCOLOPJ2X HUD SO NIA. 
[Plate XI Y. Vol. 2.] 
This beautiful shore bird, is for the first time pictured 
and presented to the public, through the “ Cabinet of Na- 
tural History and American Rural Sports;” and the edi- 
tor is much indebted to the Philadelphia Museum for this 
valuable acquisition to the ornithology of North Ame- 
rica. It is a rare bird, being the only one of that species 
in the collection of the Museum, and as represented in the 
plate, is clothed in summer plumage. The only notice 
of this bird by former writers, is found in the supplemen- 
tary part of Pennant’s Arctic Zoology, and appears to have 
been communicated for publication there by the celebrated 
ornithologist Latham. The editor of this work has 
accordingly adopted the name for the bird supplied by 
that author. 
The Hudsonian Godwit is nearly seventeen inches in 
length, and twenty-eight in extent; bill three, bending a 
little upwards; the base half palish brown, the rest black; 
crown blackish, spotted, and streaked with dusky white; 
sides of the head and back part of the neck nearly the 
same, but paler; lore dusky; over the eye a whitish streak; 
chin of same colour; back and scapulars dusky brown, spot- 
ted with rufous; lesser wing coverts brown; in the mid- 
dle paler, and marked with a few spots of white; larger, 
coverts, plain ash colour; quills black, with white shafts, 
the bases of them, from the fourth, white for one-third of 
their length; rump white; the whole under parts, from the 
throat to the vent, fine rufous bay, waved across, with 
dusky lines; under tail coverts, waved with white, bay 
and black; tail feathers white at base, and dusky the rest 
of their length to within a quarter of an inch of the end, 
which is dirty white; the inner vanes, of the outer tail 
feathers, white; legs black. 
The chief abode and places of incubation for this bird 
appear to be Hudson’s Bay and other northerly regions; 
as we have no notice of its being met with further south 
than Cape May, where the bird from which the present 
drawing [s made was shot, in May, 1828, by Mr. Titian 
R. Peale. From thence north it is sometimes, though not 
frequently seen, and it seen, not known, and appears as 
fond of wandering along the shores of fresh water ponds 
as the sea side; it is social in its disposition; being met 
with in company with the Golden Plover. They 
usually appear in small parties of four or five; are not 
shy at first, but unsuspicious and easily shot, but it 
is seldom met with in the above plumage, which so 
differs from its fall or winter dress, that none but an expe- 
rienced eye could identify the bird as the same when 
found in the latter plumage. From this circum- 
stance 1 am inclined to think it much more common 
than is supposed ; but not having appeared south, it has been 
unnoticed by Wilson and others, and thus omitted in the 
respective works on American Ornithology. 
Mr. I. F. Ward, a naturalist of New York, who 
collects quantities of birds from different parts of the 
United States, for public and private cabinets, informs me, 
that he scarcely ever met with the Hudsonian Godwit, ex- 
cept on Hempstead Plains on Long Island, and then 
rarely dressed in the above plumage. 
SPORTING IN THE WILDS OF CANADA. 
In deer stalking, and, indeed, all kinds of sporting in 
this country, it is often necessary to camp out, — that is 
bivouac in the woods. This would appear to a man who 
is curious in well-aired sheets, as the next way to the 
other world; but in reality there is nothing either danger- 
ous or unpleasant in the proceeding. Every man carries 
with him in the woods, punk, that is, German tinder, a 
fungous excrescence of the maple, and a flint. With this 
and the back of his knife, a light is struck, and the ignited 
piece cut off from the mass. This is put into dry moss, 
and blown or swung round the head until it blazes, and 
thus a large fire of logs is kindled. Spruce and hemlock 
are stripped, and moss gathered to make a bed; and if it 
be dry overhead nothing further is necessary, the party all 
sleeping with their feet turned towards the fire. If, how- 
