84 Birds I Have Kept. 



but in some places has been superseded by a larger red-legged 

 species. When wild it feeds on all kinds of grain and seeds, 

 small field snails and other insects, blades of grass and com, 

 turnip-tops, etc., and in the house can be maintained in health 

 on the simple diet already mentioned. 



It is useless attempting to tame a Partridge taken when 

 full grown: but if reared in the house, or in an aviary, 

 under a common barn-door fowl, or preferably a bantam, they 

 soon become quite familiar, and are as readily reared as 

 Pheasants, and upon the same food, namely, eggs, chopped 

 very fine, oatmeal, and ants' eggs: and birds thus reared will, 

 it is said, breed in a garden aviary where long grass, or oats, 

 have been grown, providing they have the place to themselves, 

 and are not disturbed by rats or mice. 



The female Partridge lays from ten to sixteen, or even 

 more, pale olive brown eggs, upon which she sits for twenty- 

 eight days, from the date of laying the last egg of the clutch. 

 The young run about directly they are hatched, frequently 

 with a portion of the shell sticking to their backs. There 

 is but one brood in the year, and the whole party keep 

 together until the spring, when they covey, as it is called, 

 separates into pairs, which never more part, ''as long as they 

 both do live": for unlike the generality of poultry. Partridges 

 are models of conjugal fidelity. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



THE LESSER EEDPOLL. 



THIS pretty little bird, which is a miniature Linnet, is a 

 great favourite with the humbler class of workpeople, 

 whom sedentary occupations confine indoors for the greater part 

 of the week. I have known as many as twenty Pedpolls, 

 each in a tiny little cage about four inches square, hung round 



