BIRDS. Ill The birch partridge is a large variety of grouse. It is in fact the ruffed grouse. Its colour is beauti¬ fully variegated with brown, white, and black. Its handsome tail, which it spreads like a fan, is prettily crossed with stripes of black, light chocolate, and white; they have a beautiful glossy rich purple ruff round the neck, which they can erect at will. They are larger than an English partridge, and equally delicious. They lay ten to fourteen eggs, making their nests on the ground. A peculiarity of this bird is, the noise, j resembling distant thunder, which it makes by clap-> ping its wings. When doing so, it generally sits on a fallen withered pine or hemlock-tree, and it is probable that the sound is partly produced by flap¬ ping its wings against the wood. The spruce partridge resembles the partridge of more than the other; but its flesh is different, and it feeds principally on the branches of spruce fir. The white partridge of Newfoundland is a species of ptarmigan. All the kinds of partridges are easily shot; sometimes a whole bevy perch on a tree, and remain until shot, one by one, apparently stultified by the first fire. There are no game-laws in North 5 , unless the provincial laws, which prohibit \ the shooting or destroying partridges between the 1st | of April and the 1st of September, be considered ri. such. Of the wild goose there are several varieties, some of them probably accidental. The common wild goose, of a dark greyish colour, with a large white spot under the neck, is best known, and most