156 TRAVELS THROUGH LOWER CANADA ! 
the grey lapwing ; their walk and mariner alsc* 
are so very similar, that when on- the ground, 
they might be taken for the same bird w ere 
they but of a larger size; they are not much 
bigger than a sparrow. In the woods we fell 
in for the first time with a large covey or flock 
of spruce partridges or pheasants, as the peo- 
pie call them in this neighbourhood. In co¬ 
lour, they are not much unlike the English, 
partridge, but of a larger size, and their flesh 
differs in flavour little from that of the 
English pheasant. They are different in many 
respects both from the partridge and pheasant 
found in Maryland and in the middle states, 
but in none more so than in their wonderful 
tameness, or rather stupidity. Before the 
flock took to flight, I shot three birds singly 
from off one tree, and had I but been ac¬ 
quainted with the proper method of proceed¬ 
ing at the time, it is possible I might have 
shot them all in turn. It seems you must al¬ 
ways begin by shooting the bird that sits 
lowest on the tree, and so proceed upwards, 
in whicti case the survivors are not at all 
alarmed. Ignorant, however, of this secret, 
I shot at one of the uppermost birds, and the 
disturbance that he made in falling through the 
branches on which the others were perched put 
the flock to flight immediately. 
