'The Natural History of Se I borne 421 



attended me saw her brood, that was small and unable to fly, 

 run for shelter into an old fox-earth under the bank. So 

 wonderful a power is instinct. WHITE. 



It is not uncommon to see an old partridge feign itself 

 wounded and run along on the ground fluttering and crying 

 before either dog or man, to draw them away from its helpless 

 unfledged young ones. I have seen it often, and once in 

 particular I saw a remarkable instance of the old bird's solici- 

 tude to save its brood. As I was hunting a young pointer, 

 the dog ran on a brood of very small partridges : the old bird 

 cried, fluttered, and ran tumbling along just before the dog's 

 nose till she had drawn him to a considerable distance, when 

 she took wing, and flew still farther off, but not out of the 

 field : on this the dog returned to me, near which place the 

 young ones lay concealed in the grass, which the old bird no 

 sooner perceived than she flew back again to us, settled just 

 before the dog's nose again, and by rolling and tumbling 

 about, drew off his attention from her young, and thus pre- 

 served her brood a second time. I have also seen, when a 

 kite has been hovering over a covey of young partridges, the 

 old birds fly up at the bird of prey, screaming and fighting 

 with all their might to preserve their brood. MARKWICK. 



A HYBRID PHEASANT. 



LORD STAWELL sent me from the great lodge in the Hold a 

 curious bird for my inspection. It was found by the spaniels 

 of one of his keepers in a coppice, and shot on the wing. The 

 shape, air, and habit of the bird, and the scarlet ring round 

 the eyes, agreed well with the appearance of a cock pheasant ; 

 but then the head and neck, and breast, and belly were of a 

 glossy black : and though it weighed three pounds three 

 ounces and a half,* the weight of a full grown cock pheasant, 

 yet there were no signs of any spurs on the legs, as is usual 



* Hen pheasants usually weigh only two pounds ten ounces. 



