THE COMMON PARTRIDGE. 103 



daily passage of men and animals. The parents, 

 as if knowing their safety depended on sitting close, 

 remain quiet amidst all the bustle, and often hatch 

 in such places. 



During incubation the male sedulously attends, 

 and will generally be found near, if the female is in- 

 truded upon by any of her less formidable enemies. 

 When the brood is hatched, both lead about the 

 young and assist them to their food ; and mild and 

 timid as the partridge is generally described, in- 

 stances have been seen where the love of offspring 

 prevailed, and a vigorous defence was successfully 

 maintained against a more powerful assailant. 

 Among the many instances of such defence, men- 

 tioned by various authors, we shall notice one of 

 the latest, which Mr. Selby has recorded in the last 

 edition of his Illustrations of British Ornithology : * 

 " Their parental instinct, indeed, is not always 

 confined to mere devices for engaging attention; 

 but where there exists a probability of success, they 

 will fight obstinately for the preservation of their 

 young, as appears from many instances already nar- 

 rated by different writers, and to which the follow- 

 ing may be added, for the truth of which I can 

 vouch. A person engaged in a field, not far from 

 my residence, had his attention arrested by some 

 objects on the ground, which, upon approaching, 

 he found to be two Partridges, a male and female, 

 engaged in battle with a carrion-crow ; so success- 

 ful, and so absorbed were they in the issue of the 

 * Vol. i p. 435. 



