198 OUR BIRD ALLIES. 
These grubs, however, are a very favourite food 
with the partridge, which, as most of us know, is 
generally to be found frequenting the turnip-fields, 
where it finds both food and shelter. Slugs, again, 
it looks upon as special dainties ; and no gardener or 
agriculturist needs to be told of the mischief of which 
those creatures are capable. Caterpillars of all kinds 
fall victims to the bird, and, lastly, it has frequently 
been noticed while engaged in the capture of the 
common garden white butterfly, which, in its larval 
state, is so destructive to cabbages, leaping up at the 
insects as they fluttered near the ground, and dex- 
terously seizing them with its beak. 
Ants, again, form a large proportion of the food of 
the partridge, although these insects, of course, exer- 
cise no particular influence upon agriculture. The 
bird is especially fond of the grubs, pupze, and perfect 
insects of the wood-ants which are so common in 
pine-woods, and which raise such huge mounds of the 
needle-like leaves with which the ground is always 
carpeted. These nests are generally levelled by the 
partridge, which sets to work in a most systematic 
manner, and scarcely allows a single specimen to 
escape its vigilant search. It is generally considered, 
by the way, that the flesh of partridges reared upon 
such a diet is of exceptional quality. 
Although partridges pair as early as February, they 
are among the very latest of birds to turn their atten- 
tion to domestic affairs, the hen seldom beginning to 
sit until the very end of May. ‘The young birds are 
wonderfully strong when first hatched, and sometimes 
