80 ^HAUNTS AND HABITS OF PARTRIDGES AND WHERE POUND. 



HAUNTS AND HABITS OF PAETEIDGES AND 

 WHERE FOUND. 



|HB knowledge one sportsman possesses over ano- 

 ther, of the haunts and habits of Partridges', is 

 very often the difference between one man's good 

 luck, in a day's hunt, over that of another, who hunts 

 in a hap-hazard way, without giving these matters atten- 

 tion. I shall give my knowledge of the haunts and habits 

 of Partridges, and the best places where to find these 

 birds. In drj^, fair weather. Partridges are found feeding 

 most generally in wheat stubbles and cornfields, from sun- 

 rise until about ten or eleven o'clock in the morning. From 

 abqut ten or eleven o'clock in the morning, until about 

 three in the afternoon, they most frequently resort to the 

 sides of fields in clumps of bushes, or in patches of wood, 

 or along the sides of creeks that are grown up with bushes, 

 where they go to drink, and pick up gravel, and where they 

 often spend some time in picking, scratching, and dusting 

 themselves. About three o'clock in the afternoon they 

 commence to run, and feed again, and usually return back 

 to the wheat stubbles, and cornfields, w^here they remain 

 until sunset, when they go to some favorite spot to roost. 

 They do not always roost in the same fields they feed in ; 

 they frequently take a short flight to an adjoining field or 

 swamp, and there settle and huddle together, and remain 

 in this position until morning. They rarely ever run after 

 they alight, which makes them more secure from their 

 foes, as they leave no trail behind by which they might be 

 followed to their roosting places, and detected. On wet 

 and foggy days, they can most frequently be found in the 

 woods, and in thin open cover, and on high ground, and 

 in the dryest places. In cold, windy weather, they can be 



