The Common Partridge. 317 



into the way of danger, in order to mislead the enemy. 

 He flutters along the ground, hanging his wings, and 

 exhibiting every symptom of debility. By this strata- 

 gem he seldom fails of so far attracting the attention of 

 the intruder as to allow the female to conduct the help- 

 less unfledged brood into some place of security. 



The nest is usually on the ground ; but on the farm 

 of Lion Hall, in Essex, belonging to Colonel Hawker, 

 a Partridge, in the year 1788, formed her nest, and 

 hatched sixteen eggs, on the top of a pollard oak-tree ! 

 What renders this circumstance the more remarkable 

 is, that the tree had fastened to it the bars of a stile, 

 where there was a footpath ; and the passengers, in 

 going over, discovered and disturbed her before she sat 

 close. When the brood was hatched, the birds scrambled 

 down the short and rough boughs, which grew out all 

 around the trunk of the tree, and reached the ground in 

 safety. It has long been a received opinion among 

 sportsmen, as well as among naturalists, that the female 

 Partridge has none of the bay feathers of the breast 

 like the male. This, however, is a mistake ; for Mr. 

 Montague happening to kill nine birds in one day, with 

 very little variation as to the bay mark on the breast, 

 he was led to open them all, and discovered five of 

 them were females. On carefully examining the plu- 

 mage, he found that the males could only be known by 

 the superior brightness of colour about the head ; which 

 alone, after the first or second year, seems to be the 

 true mark of distinction. They fly in coveys till about 

 the third week in February, when they separate and 

 pair ; but if the weather be very severe, it is not unusual 

 to see them collect together again. We are told that a 

 gamekeeper, in Dorsetshire, hearing a Partridge utter a 

 cry of distress, was attracted by the sound into a field 

 of oats, when the bird ran round him very much agi- 

 tated ; upon his looking among the corn, he saw in the 

 midst of her infant brood a large snake, which he killed ; 

 and perceiving its body much distended, he opened it, 

 when to his astonishment two young Partridges ran 

 from their prison, and joined their mother ; two others 

 were found dead in its stomach. Partridges have e"Ver 



