PARTRIDGE SHOOTING. 77 



settling themselves to roost, is the most important 

 one to the sportsman. The male bird is the chief 

 officer, both in the nidification and rearing of the 

 yomig until they can faintly fly, when he loses all 

 the parental solicitude for which both male and 

 female partridge are so remarkable ; but the hen 

 still watches over them, conducts them to their 

 scratching grounds, searches their food for them, 

 and gathers them, at the least alarm, together ; and 

 this continues until they are witliin a third as big as 

 herself. Every sportsman knows the ciy of distress 

 given by this bird when flushed ; and, perhaps, one 

 of the most interesting scenes, in the world of the 

 game fields, occurs, when both parents sitting, covering 

 the chickens with their wings, are surprised. Off 

 flies the male, and into the very teeth of the enemy, 

 perhaps in order to blind him as to the situation of 

 the nest ; next the female rises, hovering low, in 

 another direction : and the danger past, they will re- 

 tmii, silently and by secret ways, to their beloved 

 charge. Although the partridge may seem indif- 

 ferent to its own preservation, by roosting upon the 

 ground, where it might be exposed to the dangers of 

 ferrets, stoats, wild cats, &c. ; yet it may be seen, that 

 it chooses its ground always in the midst of culti- 

 vation, and never trusts itself to coverts, hedges, 

 and coppices, save in the day time. 



The Red-Legged, or French, Partridge {Ferdix 

 riifa). — A beautiful bird, which, notwithstanding its 

 name, prefers Southern Europe, Spain, and Portugal, 



g2 



