THE PARTRIDGE. 



This bird seems to be well-known all over the world. 

 It is found in every country — in the torrid tracts be- 

 neath the equator, as well as in the frozen regions about 

 the pole : not that in the same state it is prepared for 

 circumstances so different ; but He who formed it, and 

 intended that it should be widely diffused, adapted it to 

 its appointed condition. Thus, when dwelling in Green- 

 land, the partridge, as soon as winter sets in, has a 

 covering suited to its rigour : a warm down clothes it 

 beneath, and its outward plumage is white, like the snow 

 in which it seeks its food. 



It has often been remarked, that the culture of waste 

 lands renders scarce and drives off the birds which were 

 once numerous there ; but it is not so with the partridge. 

 Wherever the husbandman prospers most, and the fields 

 are most productive, these birds are dressed in the 

 finest plumage, and appear in the greatest abundance* 

 So considerable, however, is the difference between the 

 dwellers in the richly-clothed corn-fields and those in 



