had some comical ways that made sport for us. Crows are good scavengers, but they did some harm to young crops that over-balanced the good they did. They ate young chickens and little robins too, so they were not well liked. We sometimes shot one and hung it on a pole as a warning to the others. Some of them remained all winter; they did not seem to suffer from the cold and they could get plenty food. The birds eat great quantities of destructive insects. The blue- jay and very pretty woodpeckers were also our winter birds. The snow bunting came in winter and went in spring.

Partridges were always with us; they were our only winter game bird. Many a long tramp I took hunting them; I would follow their tracks in the light snow, in the fall. One had to keep a sharp lookout for them, for they would hide in thickets and behind logs. I saw one sitting on a log one day and shot it, when I went to pick it up there were two, the second one was behind the other and I did not see it. I was surprised to get the two; that was killing two birds with one shot. Their flesh has a very fine flavour, and it is white and tender. They are very plump and fat in the late fall; they get plenty beech- nuts. In winter they eat buds off trees and rose seeds; they always had plenty.

In the springtime they would signal one another by making a low drumming noise, by beating their wings against their breasts; it was a weird sound like distant thunder; and could be heard quite a dis- tance. The chickens were very cunning; it was surprising how they would hide from us when we tried to catch them. The mother would flutter near and try to draw us away in pursuit of her; she knew we could not catch her. We never succeeded in raising and taming part- ridges or .wild ducks; they would not stay with a domestic hen or duck, though hatched by them with their own broods. Wild geese could be tamed so they would not go away, even when left at liberty.

The spring and summer were the most interesting times in bird life around us. The wood resounded night and day with their hoots and screeches and their calls and chatter and songs. It was amusing to hear owls calling, or booting, to each other. One would be on one side of the settlement and the other on the Other side; one would answer the other’s hoot. They kept flying toward each other between

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