400 
BIRD-LIFE. 
in such numbers that in the forest of Thuringen they 
were caught in thousands, and sold by the basket. In 
some winters they are scarcely ever met with at all.” 
Partial migrations of this class seem to take place in 
the north more frequently than in the temperate zones : 
they also occur in warm climates. In Finland, in some 
winters, Black-game—which in our part of the world 
only move within comparatively narrow limits—pack 
together and travel southwards. On the Loffoden Islands, 
in Greenland, and Newfoundland, Ptarmigan appear, under 
similar circumstances, in hundreds of thousands, and 
remain for weeks together; after which they gradually 
disappear again, with the exception of a few stragglers. 
Passenger Pigeons never frequent the same forest for 
more than ten consecutive years: they arrive suddenly, 
rear millions of young, and vanish again for a long and 
uncertain period, after they have consumed such nourish¬ 
ment as the neighbourhood may afford. Wild Turkeys 
assemble in troops of hundreds and traverse vast tracts 
of country, separate in the spring and breed in forests, 
where they have previously been almost exterminated, 
disappear again, and balk the expectations of those 
who await their return in future years. In 1838, when 
Gould visited the Liverpool Plains of South Australia, he 
found the Grass Parakeet breeding in innumerable quan¬ 
tities, a place where, until then, a single solitary specimen 
only had been found, which was sent to Europe. At the 
same time he found the Harlequin Bronzewing (Phaps 
histrionica ) in such countless numbers, that they formed 
the main-stay of his cuisine. Colonists and natives alike 
assured our naturalist they had never before seen these 
two species in that district. In 1833 a small Rail (Tribonyx 
ventralis ) suddenly made its appearance in the fields and 
