158 Northern Observations of Inland Birds 



members, this may be accounted for by there being 

 two families present, each with its own interests at heart. 



From the foregoing the question arises : can partridges 

 count ? It is very certain that they know immediately 

 one of their number is missing, searching and calling 

 until it is found or until hope dies, but it may be that 

 they arrive at the knowledge not so much by counting 

 those present as by noticing the absence of the one or 

 more who have failed to put in an appearance. 



Most sportsmen have had opportunities of observing 

 the devotion of the parent birds early in the shooting 

 season. I have seen a covey rise and fly off, leaving one 

 or two of its members lying in the stubble for the dogs 

 to retrieve. Two or three hundred yards away one of the 

 parent birds has seemed suddenly to realize what has 

 happened, and detaching itself from the covey I have seen 

 it come straight back, as though wounded, towards the 

 line of waiting guns, and turn again on seeing the dead 

 birds, as though now satisfied that they could not follow. 



At all times of the year partridges are much given to 

 calling at sundown, covey answering covey in a spirit of 

 '* here I am, where are you ? " The habit is almost 

 analogous to that of the coyote with his twilight song, 

 coyote answering coyote from range to range throughout 

 the jackal universe, till the whole coyote nation, as it 

 were, is drawn together by one vast fabric of wireless 

 intercourse. It is one of nature's methods of taking the 

 census, by which each creature or each clan is kept advised 

 as to the whereabouts of its neighbours. Other creatures 

 have other ways ; the hares have their scent glands, 

 united with a marvellously keen sense of smell ; the 

 wolves have their calling posts, the bears and the badgers 

 their scratching logs, the beavers their castor signs, the 

 weasels their musking places. Indeed it is probable that 

 all wild creatures have their special and adequate methods 



