pressing upon each other towards the centre. In these almost solid masses, they darted forward in undulating and angular lines, descended and swept close over the earth with inconceivable velocity, mounted perpendicularly, so as to resemble a vast column, and, when high, were seen wheeling and twisting within their continued lines, which then resembled the coils of a gigantic serpent." Before sunset, Audubon reached Louisville, distant from Hardensburgh 55 miles; the pigeons were still passing in undiminished numbers, and continued to do so for three days in succession. Audubon attempts to reckon the number of pigeons in one of these flocks, and the daily quantity of food consumed by it. He takes, as an example, a column of one mile in breadth, and supposes it passing over us, without interruption, for three hours, at the rate of one mile per minute. This will give us a parallelogram of 180 miles by 1, averaging 180 square miles; and, allowing two pigeons to the square yard, we have one billion one hundred and fifteen millions one hundred and thirty-six thousand pigeons in one flock: and, as every pigeon consumes fully half a pint per day, the quantity required to feed, such a flock must be eight millions seven hundred and twelve thousand bushels per day. Audubon thus describes the appearance of the pigeons at one of their roosting places :—“ The sun was lost to our view, yet not a pigeon had arrived; but, suddenly, there burst forth a general cry of, Here they come !' The noise which they made, though yet distant, reminded me of a hard gale at sea, passing through the rigging of a close reefed vessel. As the birds arrived, and passed over me, I felt a current of air that surprised me. Thousands were soon knocked down by the men provided with poles. The current of birds, however, kept still increasing. The fires were lighted, and a most magnificent, as well as a wonderful and terrifying sight, presented itself. The pigeons, coming in by thousands, alighted every where, one above another, until solid masses of them, resembling hanging swarms of bees, as large as hogsheads, were formed on every tree, in all directions. Here and there the perches gave way under the weight with a crash, and, falling to the ground, destroyed hundreds of the birds beneath, forcing down the dense groups with which every stick was loaded. It was a scene of uproar and confusion. I found it quite useless to speak, or even to shout, to those persons nearest me. The reports, even, of the nearest guns, were seldom heard; and I knew only of the firing by seeing the shooters reloading. No person dared venture within the line of devastation; the hogs had been penned up in due time, the picking up of the dead and wounded being left for the next morning's employment. Still the pigeons were constantly coming; and it was past midnight before I perceived a decrease in the number of those that arrived. The uproar continued, however, the whole night; and, as I was anxious to know to what distance the sound reached, I sent off a man, accustomed to perambulate the forest, who, returning two hours afterwards, informed me he had heard it distinctly when three miles from the spot. Towards the approach of day, the noise rather subsided; but, long ere objects were at all distinguishable, the pigeons began to move off, in a direction quite different from that in which they had arrived the evening before; and, at sunrise, all that were able to fly had disappeared. The howlings of the wolves now reached our ears; and the foxes, lynxes, cougars, bears, racoons, opossums, and pole-cats, were seen sneaking off from the spot, whilst eagles and hawks, of different species, accompanied by a crowd of vultures, came to supplant them, and enjoy their share of the spoil. It was then that the authors of all this devastation began their entry amongst the dead, the dying, and the mangled. The pigeons were picked up, and piled in heaps, until each had as many as he could possibly dispose of, when the hogs were let loose to feed on the remainder." The following table of Brehm's arrangement of the European pigeons, will interest some of our readers : Columbine birds. Columbida.- Leach. GENUS I. Pigeons. Columba.- Linnæus, Boje, Brehm, Ring pigeons. Columbæ torquatæ. 1. High crowned ring pigeon. C. palumbus. — Lin. Second Division. Field pigeons. Columbæ campestris, 1. Domestic field pigeon. C. domestica. Lin. 2. Flat crowned turtle dove. P. tenera. - Brehm. GENUS V.-TETRAO, 37. GROUSE. BIRDS of this genus are of a hardy frame, and patient of extreme cold. They only occur in northern or temperate countries, and have not yet been discovered in Africa, in the eastern parts of Asia, or in South America. The northern regions of Europe and America produce them in the greatest abundance. The special localities which they affect vary according to the different kinds; and even the haunts of the same species admit of variation, according to circumstances. wood grouse (such as the magnificent capercailzie, The T. urogallus, a former inhabitant of Scotland) prefer forests of pine, and of such other hardy trees as grow . readily on the sides of mountains. The red grouse, (T. scoticus,) so highly esteemed as an article of food, and so eagerly followed by our sportsmen, confines itself to the acclivities of mountains and moors, and is careless of other shelter than that afforded by the natural roughness of the ground and its plentiful covering of heath. The habits of the black cock (T. tetrix) may be said to be, in this respect, intermediate between those of the two species just alluded to; for although it usually occurs in mountainous and moorish districts, it exhibits a partiality for cover of birch or willow. Ptarmigans seem to prefer, in comparatively temperate climates, such as that of Scotland, the bare and stony sides and summits of the highest mountains; but under the severe climate of Greenland, and the most northern parts of North America, they are chiefly found in the vicinity of the sea shore, by the banks of rivers, and among the willow and other copse wood of the lower and more sheltered vales. 38. TETRAO (LAGOPUS) MUTUS, LEACH. —THE PTARMIGAN. Ptarmigan, Penn. Brit. Zol. 1. p. 359, pl. 57.-Upper Figure, Tetrao lagopus, Captain Sabine, Suppl. Parry's First Voy. p. cxcvii. Sab. (J.) Frankl. Journ. p. 682. Richardson, App. Parry's Second Voy. p. 350. ACCORDING to Captain Sabine, this bird inhabits the islands lying to the southwest of Baffin's Bay, as well as the loftiest mountains in Scotland. A specimen from Churchill River, Hudson's Bay, was declared by Mr Sabine to be identical with the ptarmigan of Scotland, thus establishing it as an inhabitant of the American continent. It remains, however, to be seen whether or not it is the same, according to the method of discrimination, depending on the form of the head, &c. as pointed out by Brehm. - 39. TETRAO (LAgopus) Saliceti, SWAINSON.-WIllow grouse. GENUS, Tetrao, Linn. Sub-genus, Lagopus, Vieillot. The White Partridge, (Lagopus,) Edwards, pl. 72; male in spring. -Tetrao lagopus, Forst. Phil. Trans. lxii. p. 390.-White Grouse, Penn. Arct. Zool. ii. p. 307, No. 183.-Rehusak Grouse, Idem. p. 316; E.-Willow Partridge, Hearne, Journ. p. 411.-Tetrao saliceti, Temm. ii. p. 471.; Sab. Frankl. Jour. p. 681; Richardson, App. Parry's Second Voy. p. 347, No. 7. Wawpeethæo, Crees. Kasbah, Chipewyans. Akkaidiggæuck, Esquimaux. "THE willow grouse inhabits the fur countries from the fiftieth to the seventieth parallels of latitude, within which limits it is partially migratory; breeding in the valleys of the Rocky Mountains, the Barren Grounds, and Arctic coasts; collecting in flocks on the approach of winter, and retiring southward as the severity of the weather increases; considerable bodies, however, remaining in the woody tracts as far north as latitude 67°, even in the coldest winters. It is tolerably abun dant in the sixty-fifth parallel all the year, and assembles in vast flocks on the shores of Hudson's Bay in the winter time. Mr Hutchins has known ten thousand captured in a single season at Severn River, and Sir Thomas Button, and other navigators, speak of still greater multitudes. In the year 1819, its earliest appearance at Cumberland House, lat. 54°, was in the second week of November; and it returned to the northward again before the beginning of spring. The species seems to be identical with the willow grouse of the Old Continent, which inhabits the greater part of Scandinavia, Kamtschatka, Greenland, and Iceland, and also the valleys of the Alps. In America, these grouse shelter themselves in the winter in thickets of willow and dwarf birches, on the banks of marshes and lakes, the tops and buds of the shrubs constituting the principal part of their food at that season. Denuded sandy spots are favourite resorts in the daytime; but they pass the night in holes in the snow. When pursued by a sportsman or bird of prey, they often |