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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