Note 17 — PETER KALM’s TRAVELS.

White Patridges17 is the name which the French in Canada give to a kind of birds, abounding during winter near Hudson’s Bay, and which are undoubtedly our Ptarmigans, or Snow-hens (Tetrao Lagopus). They are very plentiful at the time of a great frost, and when a considerable quantity of snow happens to fall. They are described to me as having rough white feet, and being white all over, except three or four black feathers in the tail; and they are reckoned very fine eating. From Edward’s Natural History of Birds (pag. 72.) it appears, that the ptarmigans are common about Hudson’s Bay18.