it scarcely occurs half a dozen times in the course of a winter: and it is the same with the hoar-frost on the branches, which is by no means so common a spectacle as a Cockney might fancy. This morning both these specimens of winter's handiwork are united, and the effect is very fine, though it looks as if spring might yet be a hundred years off.
Friday, 10th.—A bunch of ten partridges brought to the house; they are occasionally offered singly, or a brace or two at a time, but ten are a much larger number than are often seen together. Last autumn we frequently came upon these birds in the woods—they were probably more numerous than usual. Several times they even found their way down into the village, which we have never known them to do before; once they were surprised in the churchyard, and twice they were found feeding among the refuse of our own garden.
When this valley was first peopled by the whites, quails were also found here in abundance, among the common game-birds of the region, but they have now abandoned us entirely; one never hears of them, and it is said that they soon disappeared after the country had been cleared. This is not according to their usual habits, for generally they are found to prefer the farm lands to the forest, feeding on different kinds of grain, building about fences, and rarely resorting to the woods. In some of the oldest parts of the country they are quite common, and so familiar, that in winter they will occasionally mingle with the poultry in the barn-yard. Instead of fearing the advance of civilization, they would delight in it, were it not for the sportsman's gun. It is true that in this county we approach the northern limits of the quail, for they are found from Honduras to Massachusetts only; our Partridge or
