194 PARTRIDGE. 



The Partridge is a thoroughly English bird, and is nowliere to 

 be found so plentifully as in England. A country walk is always 

 enlivened, when " Birds " are seen, as is so frequently the case. If 

 a Partridge is suddenly surprised, it rises close at hand, with a 

 whirr, like a spinning-wheel ; but if, as is more usually the case, the 

 intruder is observed in time, the covey will run and rise, with at 

 first, a rapid movement of their wings, until they skim in a sailing 

 fashion over the nearest hedge-row, with the twist, to avoid any 

 object they may see there, which is sometimes so fatal to them. 



The round of Partridge life seems to be much as follows. The 

 birds seldom take wing unless disturbed. In the early morning 

 they repair, from the grass-fields where they have passed the night, 

 to the arable-land, clover, corn, or stubble-fields, as the case 

 may be, picking up grubs, insects, and green leaves, as they meet 

 with them. They pass the mid-day in the shelter of the growing 

 crops of corn, clover, or potatoes, and here they get their second 

 supply of food ; resorting afterwards to some convenient road, or 

 dry ground, where they can shuffle their feathers and dust them- 

 selves. As evening approaches, they leave the corn-fields, and 

 pass along the hedge-rows into the open grass-fields, where they 

 separate themselves insect-hunting, rejoicing particularly in any 

 ants and their eggs that they can find, until as the " droning 

 flight " of the beetle is heard in the air, the call '' chicurrr," 

 " chicurrr " is given by the master-bird, to summon the wanderers 

 together. They all meet in the plain open field to "jug" for the 

 night, as it is called, that is, to squat and nestle together. They 

 form a close circle, with their tails in the centre and their heads 

 outwards, so as to perceive and escape from any danger that may 

 arise, as quickly as may be. 



The cry of the Partridge is one of the pleasantest of country 

 sounds, beginning early in the year and lasting late ; and has thus 

 attracted the notice of Hurdis, who says — 



I love to hear the cry 

 Of the ni^ht-loving Partridge. 



and of Clare, though his imitation of the sound is only another 



