56 AN EAST COAST NATURALIST 



using a good glass." A Mr. Mayes informed 

 Stevenson "that they come over about the middle 

 of March or beginning of April; the wind mostly 

 south-east and south. I have seen them when I 

 have been out to sea, four and Jive miles from land." 

 Probably the theory propounded by Stevenson may 

 be the right one after all, where he suggests a 

 wandering instinct in this partridge, and attempts at 

 leaving our shores. " These birds," he says, " or a 

 portion of them at least (some, probably, falling 

 short and being drowned at sea), misjudging the 

 distance and their own powers of flight, would 

 return again to our shores in an exhausted state, and 

 when picked up under such circumstances, would 

 very naturally be regarded as foreigners just arrived 

 on the coast." I have on one or two occasions only 

 found dead examples on the beach. It may be 

 urged that the excessive weight of the birds, when 

 compared with their seeming feebleness of wing, 

 would prevent a long flight across seas ; but the 

 same might be said with regard to the Quail, which 

 is an annual, although, in this locality, lessening 

 immigrant. 



