i 4 8 } 7 IRGINTAN PARTRIDGE. 



wings, as if sorely wounded, uttering at the same time 

 certain peculiar notes of alarm well understood by the 

 young, which dive separately among 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 

 off.' She shews the greatest assiduity and the most 

 sedulous and unremitting attention to their further care. 

 Wilson mentions a curious anecdote of some young 

 ones which had been hatched under a hen, and which, 

 '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 accom- 

 panied them to the pasture. These remained during 

 the winter, lodging in the stable, but as soon as spring 

 came they disappeared.' 



J. R. De Capel Wise, Esq., of Lincoln College, 

 Oxford, has favoured me with the egg of this species 

 for delineation in this work. 



