of the United States. At the north, this species is rarely seen to the extremity of New Hampshire, and this limit, no doubt, is determined by the length and severity of the winters which prevail in this rigorous climate. They seldom migrate, except to short distances, in quest of food, and consequently, often perish beneath deep drifts of snow, so that their existence is rendered impossible in the arctic winters of our high latitudes. Indeed, sometimes they have been so thinned in this part of the country, that sportsmen, acquainted with their local attachments, have been known to introduce them into places for breeding and to prevent their threatened extermination. So sedentary are the habits of this interesting bird, that until the flock is wholly routed by the unfeeling hunter, they continue faithfully attached to the neighborhood of the spot where they have been raised and supported. Besides this species there are several which appear

to be peculiar to California. The California Crested Quail (Lophortyx Californica), is thus noticed by Nuttall:

This species, discovered by Menzies, is wholly confined to the west side of the northern Andes, and is common throughout the provinces of Upper California, and the territory of the Oregon.

In small flocks and pairs they are abundant in Upper California, and are sometimes so gentle and confidant, as to show but little alarm when approached. Its manners are very similar to those of the common American Partridge. The males in spring are often seen perched on low bushes, where they utter for hours their peculiar almost crowing call, and in the same quaint voice with its eastern prototype.

A day or two after my arrival at Monterey in California, in the evening, returning from a walk, I heard, as I thought, some Indians or boys calling out in a loud strain; but soon found that this cry was answered at small distances like the crowing of fowls. It was, in fact, the call of the Tufted Californian Quail, "k'h, k'h k'h k'h." About the middle of April, in the plains round the port of St. Diego, this species was very abundant; and every now and then in the day, the male, perched on some low bush or hillock,

was heard calling out, rather quickly, ke kai koo, k'kaikoo, which was usually answered by some other males, to the right and left, who were within hearing. At this time they were paired. About the middle of the day, we sometimes surprised small flocks basking and scratching in the shade of the bushes.

Mr. Townsend met with small coveys of the Plumed Quail (Lophortyx Plumifera), in the woods near the Columbia River. It is probably more common in Upper California; and Douglas's Crested Quail (Lophortyx Douglasi), and the elegant crested Quail Lophortyx elegans, have both been found in Upper California.

The bays, inlets, and rivers, says Mr. Farnham, are well stocked with different species of water birds, and the low lands near the outlets of some of the streams on the Pacific coast actually swarm with geese, widgeons, teal, cranes, curlews, snipes, and various other waders and swimmers.

The Wild Swan (Cygnus ferus), is the largest of these water birds. They are by far the largest of the web-footed water-fowl, and their plumage throughout is of the purest white. The neck is not more remarkable for its extreme length than for its majestic personation of the line of beauty; its bill, slightly hooked at the point, of a black color, without a tubercle, is all of an equal breadth, only higher than it is wide at the base; the feet are black. The young, pale ash color. The male is upwards of five feet in length, and more than eight in the expanse of its wings; its usual weight averages from twenty to twenty-five pounds, and sometimes it will even reach thirty; the female is smaller in size. In former days, swans as well as peacocks were served up at the tables of the great;

but both have now disappeared from our feasts, and are retained only for their beauty, their flesh at best being dry and hard when the birds are full-grown; yet cygnets are still occasionally used, but certainly more for show than taste, as they are not at all comparable to a good barn-yard chicken. The swan is a longlived bird, but it is disputed whether the traditionary accounts which allot it a term of more than a century be correct; about half that period may perhaps be its legitimate boundary. The Swan lives almost entirely upon the water, and feeds chiefly upon aquatic plants, yet varying its vegetable diet with frogs and insects.

The Trumpeter Swan (Cygnus buccinator), is more common. It is from this kind that the bulk of the swan-skins imported by the Hudson Bay Company are obtained. Douglas mentions a third kind equal in

size to the common swan, and of a bluish-gray color on the back and white on the belly.

Mr. Farnham gives the following species of geese. The Laughing Goose (Anser albifrons), the Snow Goose (Anser hypoboreus), the Common Wild Goose (Anser Canadensis), and the Brant Goose (Anser bernacla.)

The Common Wild Goose, or Canada Goose, is larger than the tame goose, and slender in its make. The back and upper parts of the body are brown, with white spots; the head and neck black, with a conspicuous white patch on the throat and lower part of the cheeks; the bill is black and the feet lead colored. It is not, however, confined to Canada, but extends its migrations from the southernmost borders of the United States to the most northern points that