282 PAETRIDGE. 



danger require. In tliis situation should the little timid family he 

 unexpectedly surprised, the utmost alarm and consternation instantly 

 prevail. The mother throws herself in the path, fluttering along, and 

 beating the ground with her wings, as if sorely wounded, using every 

 artifice she is mistress of, to entice the passenger in pursuit of herself, 

 uttering at the same time certain peculiar notes of alarm, well under- 

 stood by the young, who dive separately amongst the grass, and secrete 

 themselves till the danger is over ; and the parent, having decoyed the 

 pursuer to a safe distance, returns, by a circuitous route, to collect and 

 lead them oif. This well known manoeuvre, which nine times in ten 

 is successful, is honorable to the feelings and judgment of the bird, but 

 a severe satire on man. The aflFectionate mother, as if sensible of the 

 avaricious cruelty of his nature, tempts him with a larger prize, to save 

 her more helpless offspring; and pays him, as avarice and cruelty ought 

 always to be paid, with mortification and disappointment. 



The eggs of the Quail have been frequently placed under the domestic 

 hen, and hatched and reared with equal success as her own ; though, 

 generally speaking, the young Partridges being more restless and 

 vagrant, often lose themselves, and disappear. The hen ought to be a 

 particularly good nurse, not at all disposed to ramble, in which case 

 they are very easily raised. Those that survive, acquire all the 

 familiarity of common chickens ; and there is little doubt that if proper 

 measures were taken, and persevered in for a few years, that they might 

 be completely domesticated. They have been often kept during the 

 first season, and through the whole of the winter, but have uniformly 

 deserted in the spring. Two young Partridges that were brought up by 

 a hen, when abandoned by her, associated with the cows, which they 

 regularly followed to the fields, returned with them when they came 

 home in the evening, stood by them while they were milked, and again 

 accompanied them to the pasture. These remained during the winter, 

 lodging in the stable, but as soon as spring came they disappeared. Of 

 this fact I was informed by a very respectable lady, by whom they were 

 particularly observed. 



It has been frequently asserted to me, that the Quails lay occasion- 

 ally in each other's nests. Though I have never myself seen a case of 

 this kind, I do not think it altogether improbable, from the fact, that 

 they have often been known to drop their eggs in the nest of the com- 

 mon hen, when that happened to be in the fields, or at a small distance 

 from the house. The two Partridges above mentioned were raised in 

 this manner ; and it was particularly remarked by the lady, who gave 

 me the information, that the hen sat for several days after her own eggs 

 were hatched, until the young Quails made their appearance. 



The Partridge, on her part, has sometimes been employed to hatch 

 the eggs of the common domestic hen. A friend of mine, who himself 



I 



