68 THE PHEASANT SUBFAMILY 



tion from his familv : meanwhile the hen and her chicks crouch 



V ' 



low and make off among the undergrowth with all possible speed. In 

 a few days, however, the young are able to fly, and thus danger is to 

 a certain extent lessened. But so long as there is need, both parents 

 will display desperate courage in defence of their young. When the 

 ruse seems likely to succeed they feign injury, and flutter along the 

 ground as if endeavouring to persuade the pursuer that he has but 

 to make one more supreme effort to seize the stricken bird, but 

 invariably before this happens the lure rises on the wing, and speeds 

 to a place of safety. Meanwhile the chicks have scattered in all 

 directions. 



But the partridge realises well enough that there are times when 

 strategy is folly. Thus Yarrell relates an instance where "a person . . . 

 had his attention arrested by some objects on the ground, which, upon 

 approaching, he found to be two partridges, a male and a female, 

 engaged in battle with a carrion crow ; so successful and so absorbed 

 were they in the issue of the contest, that they actually held the crow 

 till it was seized and taken from them by the spectator of the scene. 

 Upon search, young birds, very lately hatched, were found concealed 

 amongst the grass." Such formidable foes as the hen-harrier, stoats 

 and weasels, and dogs, are similarly attacked with dauntless courage, 

 and with success. Man alone seems to escape such attacks, and it is 

 only on this account that the ptarmigan enjoys a reputation for superior 

 courage. But the partridge has long lived in the midst of the human 

 race, and has perchance learned the futility of resistance to such 

 a foe. 



In how far the redlegged-partridge agrees with its cousin in all 

 that pertains to the period of reproduction we cannot yet say, for long 

 though this bird has been resident among us, little save the colour 

 and number of its eggs has been recorded ! This is certainly not to 

 the credit of British ornithologists, who are fond of insisting that we 

 have nothing more to learn of our native avifauna. 



