248 BIRDS, BEASTS, AND FISHES 



Though a shyer bird, as a rule, than the Enghsh bird, in 

 the spring the soft influence of love tames the Frenchman's 

 heart, and he grows more hardy. 



His hen does not lay her eggs every morning, but often 

 slips a day or two between each effort ; and when the young 

 are hatched, the proud mother will fight for them, though 

 she, too, is capable of making a ruse when hard pressed. 



During childhood and youth they live the same life as 

 the English birds ; but directly they can fly they grow very 

 shy indeed, often leaving a field by one gate as the sports- 

 man enters by the other — that is, unless they squat, as they 

 are prone to do on occasion. And when a " Frenchman " does 

 squat, if you want to see him run past, lie down and watch 

 him take to his heels, running down a furrow or turnip ridge 

 like a racing bird, though he is really more of a marsh-bird 

 than the Englishman ; for he sits round about the marshes in 

 summer by the edge of the land, and often builds in grass 

 marshes, the hens getting their heads mown off for their 

 pains, so closely do they sit upon their eggs. 



They, too, can swim, though the young birds are some- 

 times drowned in the reeds where they alight, probably 

 thinking it dry land, and getting their wings entangled 

 therein as a penalty for bad judgment. The Englishman, 

 however, is the better to eat, as everybody knows. 



Gunners tell of a partridge much smaller than the French- 

 man, though gay with his red legs. But I have never seen 

 one. 



