BIRDS. 113

Both black and grey wild ducks are delicious eating. The snipe is considered by epicures equal to the finest in Europe. The large, or Esquimaux curlew, is a fine bird, and excellent eating. It abounds along the sea-coast, generally near the water’s edge, and, on the wing, requires a good marksman to bring it down. The other species of curlew is much smaller, and found among rocks or barren countries.

Pelicans are only met with in the interior and western parts.

Penguins were formerly abundant within the Gulf of St Lawrence, where they are now seldom seen, having retired to more northerly latitudes.

All the varieties of plover are shy, and difficult to shoot ; but are always sufficiently fat and luscious to make the greatest epicurean rejoice at their appear- ance, well dressed, before him.

Eider ducks are very plentiful on the coast of Labrador and Hudson’s Bay.

Swans are rarely met with on the sea-coast. In the remote interior country, on waters and lakes not much frequented by man, they are very abundant. The large and the small species breed on small islands in lakes. The eggs of the former are so large, that ' _' one of them is a sufficient meal even for a hungry Indian. The large swan usually weighs upwards of thirty pounds, and the smaller about twenty. Their plumage is perfectly White, with black bill and legs.

The reptiles of North America are not very nume-

rous ; among the number are a variety of snakes, a VOL. I. H