THE rARTRIDDK. 411 



kito has boca hovering over a covey of youug partridges, the old birds fly up at the bird 

 of prej', screaming and fighting with all their miglit to preserve their brood." 



Sdby mentions a well-authentieuted instance in which two partridges, in defence of 

 their brood, gave battle to a carrion-crow, and actually held the miscreant till taken 

 away from them by the spectator of the scene. 



Except during the breeding season, partridges associate in flocks or coveys. 



" Fearful and cautious arc the latent prev, 

 As in the sun the circling- covey bask 

 Their varied plumes, and watchful every way, 

 Through the rough stublilc tui'U the secret eye. 

 Caught in the meshy snare, in vain they beat 

 Theii- idle wings, entangled more and more. 

 Nor on the surges of the boundless air. 

 Though borne ti'iumphant, are they safe ; 

 Glanced just and sudden from the fowler's eye. 

 The g\in o'ertakes their sounding pinions, and again, 

 Immediate, brings them from the towering wing, 

 Dead to the ground, or di'ivcs them wide, dispersed, 

 "\^'oundcd. and whirling various, down the wind."* 



So rapid, however, is the multiplication of the partridge as almost to defy extermina- 

 tion ; nor will persecution drive it from its haunts. The covey will rise, whirl about, 

 and alight, again and again ; but though the}' may be diminished by the gun, the 

 sur\'ivors will often continue in the same turnip-field, or on the same clover-stubble, as 

 pertinaciously as a mountain tribe has clung to their fastnesses in a war of extirpation. 



The partridge, like the pheasant, feeds early in the morning and late in the evening, 

 the covey resting during the day among herbage, or basking on dry banks, or, like the 

 fowl, dusting their plumage and cleaning their feathers. At night they generally choose 

 the middle of a large field as their roosting-place, and sit crowded together. The call of 

 the partridge is usuall}- heard before the covey retire to rest ; they answer each other, 

 and thus the stragglers are collected. 



On the esteem in which the partridge is held for its flesh we need not expatiiitc. An 

 old distich says :— 



•■ If partridge had the woodcock's thigh, 

 'Twould be the best bird ere did fly." 



THK RED-LEGGED P.^RTRIDGE.t 



An enemy to the bird just described has been introduced from the continent into 

 England within about sixty years ; driving it from the lands and inclosures in which it 

 has become established. 



The Red-legged Partridge is a native of France and southern Europe, and the isles of 

 Jersey and Guernsey.- The ^Marquis of Hertford and Lord Eendlesham procured some of 

 its eggs, and had them placed under the common hen, the former nobleman at one of 

 his shooting residences in Sufl'olk, the latter at an estate in the same county. It was 

 from these two spots that the species gradually extended itself; and in Xortblk, Suflblk, 

 Essex, and the adjacent counties, it is now very abundant. The flesh of this bird, 

 though highly prized by some, is inferior to that of the common partridge, and it is also 

 less juicy. 



* Thomson. t Pcrdi.\ llubra. — Briss. 



