280 General Notes. [^jj 



side of the road and watched until I found out that it was caused by a 

 Partridge or Ruffed Grouse. After that I always let the horse walk past 

 the spot, and the bird would walk under cover of the trees for about a 

 hundred yards'or more, but never would go any farther. I never tried to 

 tame the bird, only keeping quiet as I liked to have it follow me. It seemed 

 as if it was always watching for me night and morning. 



My father first noticed the Partridge in May, when he was plowing, 

 which was on the opposite side of the road, quite a distance from where the 

 bird followed me. As my father is fond of all animals he quickly made a 

 pet of this one and, if I remember rightly, fed it. The bird would follow 

 him while he was plowing but never went with him to the barn. 



I think this Partridge must have been left alone, as at that time there 

 were no others about. I should say it was lonely and finding that Pdid 

 not hurt it, it followed me, until it made friends with others. We never 

 knew of anyone having a tame Partridge or being able to tame one before. 

 The continuation of the account of this bird is by Miss Knight as follows: 

 On returning to Deer Isle, Maine, my home town, to spend the summer 

 of 1914, I heard the neighbors talking about a tame Partridge. They told 

 me that Miss Torrey, as she drove through the woods during the latter 

 part of the winter and early spring, had often seen a Partridge following 

 the team. 



My own experience with the bird began a few days later when we went 

 into the woods after strawberries. As we walked along the road a Partridge 

 followed us closely, possibly three or four rods away, in the edge of the wood. 

 We crossed the road and went into the woods on the other side and I forgot 

 all about the bird until suddenly he flew out from under my very feet. 

 When I came home the Partridge walked down the wood road, flew across 

 the highway road, and followed me fifteen or twenty rods on the side on 

 which I had first seen him. 



A few days after this, when father and I were driving to the village we 

 saw the bird again following us for a few rods. 



Accidentally we discovered that we could call him at any time we wished 

 by going to the section of wood which he frequented, and whistling. After 

 we had whistled a few minutes he always appeared, never on the wing 

 but walking, coming from various directions but always on the same side 

 of the road, although later if we crossed the road he crossed also. As the 

 summer passed he became more and more friendly, often hopping up into 

 our laps. As he strutted around us he frequently made a soft cooing sound 

 in his throat. He never liked to be caught and held, but would allow him- 

 self to be petted. He would feed from our hands. He did not care for 

 corn, but enjoyed berries, especially huckleberries. During the summer 

 he shed out all his long tail feathers, as may be seen in some of the photo- 

 graphs, and we kept several of these feathers as souvenirs. 



The bird seemed to have a fondness for the color blue, for he would 

 hop up into the lap of anyone dressed in that color. One day I tested this 

 several times as follows. I wore a blue skirt under a pink skirt. So long 



