SUMMER LIFE OF THE PARTRIDGE 159 



But, as usual, Twm, the farmer-carpenter, did 

 not mature his plans. 



Though by night the partridges, their habits 

 acquired from the experiences of many genera- 

 tions of their kindred, never slept in thick cover, 

 by day they frequently wandered through the 

 ditches, the outskirts of the furze-brakes, and 

 the thick verdure of the cultivated land; for 

 then they feared, not the stoats and the weasels, 

 but the crows and the hawks, and were safer 

 amid the brambles and the gorse, and even in 

 the long grass and the standing corn, than in a 

 bare pasture or a new-mown meadow. Their 

 own particular domain — beyond which they 

 seldom ventured, save to explore its surround- 

 ings, and thus to learn of a possible refuge should 

 they be evicted from their haunts — consisted of 

 the meadow, two rough pastures partly over- 

 grown with '' trash," the cornfield bounded by 

 the hedge in which was their deserted nest, and 

 a small field of " roots " and barley. One of 

 their favourite resorts had been the meadow, 

 and for a while they still visited it at dawn and 

 dusk to pick up seeds and grubs. 



The gateway from the meadow to the pastures 

 had not been closed since the laden wagons 

 passed homewards from the harvest ; and 

 through the opening the cattle sometimes strayed. 

 Early one morning, as the partridges were feeding 



