GALLINM. ( 178 ) PHASIANID&. 



THE COMMON PAETRIDGE. 



THE GKEY PARTRIDGE. 



Perdix cinerea. 



Stillness, heart soothing, reigns, 

 Save, now and then, the Partridge's late call ; 

 Featly athwart the ridge she runs, now seen, 

 Now in the furrow hid ; then, screaming, springs, 

 Joined by her mate, and to the grass field flies : 

 There, 'neath the blade, rudely she forms 

 Her shallow nest. 



GRAHAME, The Birds of Scotland. 



THE Partridge is plentiful in some of the lower parts of 

 Berwickshire, but in other districts it is rather scarce, pro- 

 bably owing to the clayey nature of the soil or to the ground 

 being too heavily wooded. 



It appears to prefer well-cultivated, warm, and dry 

 localities, where the fields are of moderate size and sur- 

 rounded by thick hedge-rows, in the herbage at the bottom 

 of which it can find a secure nesting place. In the higher 

 districts of the county, however, and along the base of the 

 Lammermuir Hills in the vicinity of Abbey St. Bathans and 

 Cockburn for instance it is found in considerable numbers, 

 though there it is generally much wilder than in the Merse, 

 and takes longer flights in the shooting season ; it is then 

 occasionally a difficult matter to get a second time within 

 range of the same covey, for the birds often fly a mile before 

 they again alight. 



Sometimes it is found far from cultivated ground, and, 

 as an example of this, Colonel Brown of Longformacus has 

 informed me that for several years past a covey has been 



