108 PHASIANID^. 



witnessed the confusion produced in a brood of young Par- 

 tridges by any sudden alarm ; or who have not admired the 

 stratagems to which the parent birds have recourse, in order 

 to deceive and draw off the intruder. Their parental instinct, 

 indeed, is not always confined to mere devices for engaging 

 attention ; but where there exists a probability of success, 

 they will fight obstinately for the preservation of their 

 young, as appear from many instances already narrated by 

 different writers, and to which the following may be added, 

 for the truth of which I can vouch : — A person engaged in a 

 field, not far from my residence, had his attention arrested 

 by some objects on the ground, which, upon approaching, he 

 found to be two Partridges, a male and female, engaged in 

 battle with a Carrion Crow ; so successful and so absorbed 

 were they in the issue of the contest, that they actually held 

 the Crow till it was seized and taken from them by the 

 spectator of the scene. Upon search, young birds, very 

 lately hatched, were found concealed amongst the grass. It 

 would appear, therefore, that the Crow, a mortal enemy to 

 all kinds of young game, in attempting to carry off one of 

 these, had been attacked by the parent birds, and with this 

 singular result. The Editor has seen, near Lynton, in 

 North Devon, the old birds shew a bold front to a Hen- 

 Harrier, to enable their brood to gain the protection of a 

 hedge. Their desire to go to nest, and their partiality to a 

 young brood, is sometimes shewn in another manner. In 

 1808, at Mark's Hall, in Essex, Payne, the gamekeeper, 

 noticed a brace of Partridges, whose nest had been destroyed, 

 taking to a nest of Pheasant's eggs, the hen of which had been 

 killed by accident. The Partridges hatched and brought up ten 

 young Pheasants. The keeper frequently shewed his master, 

 Colonel Burgoyne, and others, the old Partridges with the 

 young Pheasants, at different periods of their growth.* 



During the day a covey of Partridges, keeping together, 

 are seldom seen on the wing unless disturbed ; they fre- 

 quent grass-fields, preferring the hedge-sides, some of them 

 picking up insects, and occasionally the green leaves of 



* Daniel's Supplement, p. 397. 



