342 OBSERVATIONS 



instance of which I have seen in the Earl of Ashburn- 

 ham's menagerie, where the summer duck (anas sponsa 

 flew up and settled on the branch of an oak tree in 

 my presence ; but whether any of them roost on trees 

 in the night, we are not informed by any author that 

 I am acquainted with. I suppose not; but that, like 

 the rest of the genus, they sleep on the water, where 

 the birds of this genus are not always perfectly se- 

 cure, as will appear from the following circumstance, 

 which happened in this neighbourhood a few years 

 since, as I was credibly informed. A female fox was 

 found in the morning drowned in the same pond in 

 which were several geese, and it was supposed, that, 

 in the night, the fox swam into the pond to devour 

 the geese, but was attacked by the gander, which, 

 being most powerful in its own element, buffeted the 

 fox with its wings about the head till it was drowned. 



MARK WICK. 



HEN PARTRIDGE. A hen partridge came out of a 

 ditch, and ran along shivering with her wings, and 

 crying out as if wounded and unable to get from us. 

 While the dam acted this distress, the boy who at- 

 tended me saw her brood, that was small and unable 

 to fly, run for shelter into an old fox-earth under the 

 bank. So wonderful a power is instinct. 



WHITE. 



It is not uncommon to see an old partridge feign 

 itself wounded, and run along on the ground flutter- 

 ing and crying, before either dog or man, to draw 

 them away from its helpless unfledged young ones. 

 I have seen it often ; and once in particular, I saw 

 a remarkable instance of the old bird's solicitude to 

 save its brood. As I was hunting with a young 

 pointer, the dog ran on a brood of very small par- 

 tridges ; the old bird cried, fluttered, and ran tumbling 



