THE PARTRIDGES 65 



pursued by the victor, who then returns to his mate. Occasionally, 

 no doubt, the " man in possession " is dispossessed. But be this as it 

 may, during the progress of the fight the female is said to run round 

 and round the combatants, uttering the while a series of peevish 

 notes, flapping her wings, and raising and depressing her body. 

 What may be called the " tourney " ground is frequented for some 

 days, but sooner or later the paired birds betake themselves to more 

 or less remote recesses. 



There is certainly much that is unsatisfactory, much that requires 

 explanation, in the foregoing account, but what are the facts of the 

 case, what is the interpretation of such phases as have been from 

 time to time recorded ? These are questions which for the time, at 

 any rate, must remain unanswered. The solution of the problem is 

 rather hampered than otherwise by the statement that females often 

 fight for mates, at least this would appear to be so judging from a 

 letter to the Field (July 1909) by Mr. J. B. Waldy, who relates the 

 following interesting facts. " A friend of mine," he writes, "... had 

 as regular visitors last year a pair of partridges, the hen being easily 

 recognised, as she had lost one foot. At the usual time they brought 

 off a brood, but were not very lucky with their young ones, which were 

 gradually reduced in number until only one was left. This, with the 

 old pair, regularly visited the garden, where they were fed throughout the 

 winter until the pairing time came, when the young one, which proved 

 to be a hen, fought a series of battles with her mother, eventually 

 drove her away, and mated with the old cock. ... It all came right 

 in the end, however, for after a week or two, when she had been given 

 up as lost, the old hen came back with a new mate, with whose help 

 she vanquished and drove away the other pair from the garden and 

 field, where she has remained undisturbed ever since." It is cer- 

 tainly open to question whether this female would have so easily been 

 vanquished but for her maimed condition, and it is also somewhat 

 remarkable that her mate did not rally to her aid, more especially 

 since she and her new mate acted in concert in driving away this 



VOL. IV. I 



