CHAP. XII.] RURAL SPORTS. 373 



promiscuous, and not by pairs, as in the case 

 of partridges. And these are the manners of 

 the American pheasants, which are found by 

 ones, twos, and so on, and never in families, 

 except when young, when, like chickens, they 

 keep with the old hen. The American par- 

 tridges are not quails; because quails are gre 

 garious. They keep in flocks, like rooks (called 

 crows in America), or like larks, or starlings; 

 of which the reader will remember a remark 

 able instance in the history of the migration of 

 those grumbling vagabonds, the Jews, soon 

 after their march from HOREB, when the quails 

 came and settled upon each other's backs to a 

 height of two cubits, and covered a superficial 

 space of two days' journey in diameter. It is 

 a well known fact, that quails flock: it is also 

 well known, that partridges do not, but that 

 they keep in distinct families, which we call 

 coveys from the French couve, which means the 

 eggs or brood which a hen covers at one time. 

 The American partridges live in coveys. The 

 cock and her pair in the spring. They have 

 their brood by sitting alternately on the eggs, 

 just as the English partridges do ; the young 

 ones, if none are killed, or die, remain with the 

 old ones till spring; the covey always live 

 within a small distance of the same spot ; if 

 frightened into a state of separation, they call 



