ENEMIES OF THE PAETRIDC4E 173 



convinced that my luck, and the extraordinary 

 length of the season in which my setters could 

 be worked before rabbit shooting over spaniels 

 began, was attributable to the fact that I took 

 the utmost care never to disturb a brood of 

 partridges during the usual hours of feeding and 

 resting, unless, indeed, I required to do so in 

 studying the bird's habits, or in satisfying my 

 curiosity as to the ways of Philip, the moorland 

 poacher. 



Many wild creatures are quickly driven to 

 seek new haunts beyond the reach of persecu- 

 tion. But partridges — our home-loving Httle 

 " brown birds/' whose very presence on a farm 

 is suggestive of all that is idylHc in the rural 

 life of Britain — seem reluctant, till the " local 

 migration '' of spring becomes general, to move 

 fm^ther than is absolutely necessary from the 

 fields where they were reared. Their wing- 

 power is sufficient for long and frequent journeys 

 which would soon place many miles between 

 them and their old homes ; yet, apparently, 

 their dispersal over the countryside is similar to 

 that of plants, the seeds of which drop and take 

 root only just beyond the area required for the 

 further growth of the parent stem. The bii'ds, 

 however, soon recognise the significance of night 

 attacks, from which they escape with the memory 

 of the frantic struggle of a wounded companion. 



