RURAL SPORTS 



but, mix, like common fowls. The intercourse between the males 

 and females is promiscuous, and not by pairs, as in the case of 

 partridges. And these are the manners of the American 

 pheasants, which are found by ones, twos, and so on, and never 

 in families, except when young, when, like chickens, they keep 

 with the old hen. The American partridges are not quails : 

 because quails are gregarious. They keep in flocks, like rooks 

 (called crows in America), or like larks, or starlings : of which the 

 reader will remember a remarkable instance in the history of the 

 migration of those grumbling vagabonds, the Jews, soon after their 

 march from HOREB, when the quails came and settled upon each 

 other s backs to a height of two cubits, and covered a superficial 

 space of two days journey in diameter. It is a well known fact, 

 that quails flock ; it is also well known, that partridges do not, but 

 that they keep in distinct families, which we call coveys from the 

 French couvee, which means the eggs or brood which a hen covers 

 at one time. The American partridges live in coveys. The 

 cock and her pair in the spring. They have their brood by sitting 

 alternately on the eggs, just as the English partridges do ; the 

 young ones, if none are killed, or die, remain with the old ones 

 till spring ; the covey always live within a small distance of the 

 same spot ; if frightened into a state of separation, they call 

 to each other and re-assemble ; they roost all together in a round 

 ring, as close as they can sit, the tails inward and the heads out 

 ward ; and are, in short, in all their manners, precisely the same 

 as the English partridge, with this exception, that they will some 

 times alight on a rail or a bough, and that, when the hen sits, the 

 cock, perched at a little distance, makes a sort of periodical whistle 

 in a monotonous, but very soft and sweet tone. 



381. The size of the pheasant is about the half of that of the 

 English. The plumage is by no means so beautiful ; but, the 

 flesh is far more delicate. The size of the partridge bears about 

 the same proportion. But its plumage is more beautiful than 

 that of the English, and its flesh is more delicate. Both are 

 delightful, thought rather difficult, shooting. The pheasant does 

 not tower, but darts through the trees ; and the partridge does not 

 rise boldly, but darts away at no great height from the ground. 

 Some years they are more abundant than other years. This is 

 an abundant year. There are, perhaps, fifty coveys within half a 

 mile of my house. 



382 The wood-cocks are, in all respects, like those in England, 

 except that they are only about three-fifths of the size. They 

 breed here ; and are in such numbers, that some men kill twenty 

 brace, or more in a day. Their haunts are in marshy places, or 

 woods. The shooting of them lasts from the fourth of July till 

 the hardish frosts come. The last we killed this year was killed 

 on the 2ist of November. So that here areflve months of this sport, 

 and pheasants and partridges are shot from September to April. 



383. The snipes are called English snipes, which they resemble 



