The 



Pant- A hen P artrid e came out of a d itcn > and ran 



along shivering with her wings, and crying out as 



PIQCfC if wounded and unable to get from us. While the 



dam acted this distress, the boy who 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. 



G. W. 



Pretending to be Wounded 



WE all know how a lapwing will pretend to be wounded 

 in order to divert the attention of any man, dog, or 

 other enemy from her eggs or young ; but few, like 

 Mr. White, ever saw a hen partridge playing the same 

 pathetic trick. 



An old-time naturalist, reading this interesting note, 

 told how he saw the same charming incident. 



When his dog ran among a brood of very small 

 partridges, the old bird cried, fluttered, and ran and 

 tumbled along as if wounded just before the dog's 

 nose, till she had lured him well away, when she took 

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

 field. 



The dog then returned to his master, near the place 

 where the young ones lay concealed in the grass. On 

 this, the old bird again flew back, to settle just before 

 the dog's nose, and, by rolling and tumbling about, 

 managed again to draw off his attention from her 

 little ones, and so preserved her brood a second time. 



77 



