1 66 OUR RARER BIRDS 



legged Partridge, and on many estates it is persecuted quite 

 as relentlessly as the Crows, Hawks, and other vermin. This 

 is another reason why it is not more widely dispersed. 



Like most other birds of showy plumage, the Eed-legged 

 Partridge is a skulking, shy, and wary creature, only using 

 its wings to escape from enemies when all other means have 

 failed. It always prefers to run from danger, threading its 

 way through the dense herbage and up the hedge bottoms 

 witli great speed. When driven into the air it very often 

 perches in a tree or on the top of a tall hedge, much to the 

 surprise of an observer little acquainted with its habits ; and 

 in some districts where the bird is rather common I have 

 watched them perch three or four together on low walls, or 

 even on the wire fencing which has been fixed up on poles to 

 prevent sheep from jumping the low hedges into the country 

 roads. Even its long residence in this country has not 

 entirely obliterated the Eed-legged Partridge's love for wild 

 uncultivated ground. In autumn it frequently wanders from 

 the fields, and haunts the little plantations and rough ground 

 near the woods, all overgrown with rush and briar and bramble 

 and thick coarse grass. It loves the densest cover, and should 

 always be sought where the vegetation grows most luxuriantly. 

 It is a bird evidently not used to snow, and when the fields 

 are covered this Partridge quits them and skulks amongst the 

 tangled hedges and the brushwood. In summer this bird 

 lives largely on insects, but during the remainder of the year, 

 seeds, buds, shoots of clover, and grain are its favourite fare. 

 It loves the stubbles that have been cut by the sickle best, 

 discarding those which the modern reaping machine shaves 

 almost as bare as the ground. True, it feeds on them, but at 

 the least alarm you may see the big plump birds running 

 stealthily and quickly to the friendly cover of the hedges. 

 They often perch on the corn-stooks, and repeatedly hide 

 themselves by running under them. The note of the Eed- 



