COMMON PARTRIDGE. 387 



by the parent birds, and with this singular result. Mark- 

 wick says he has seen, when a Kite has been hovering over 

 a covey of young Partridges, the old birds fly up to the 

 Kite, screaming and fighting with all their might to pre- 

 serve their brood. Their desire to go to nest, and their 

 partiality to a young brood, is sometimes shown in another 

 manner. In 1808, at Mark's Hall, in Essex, Payne, the 

 gamekeeper, noticed a brace of Partridges, whose nest had 

 been destroyed, taking to a nest of Pheasant's eggs, the 

 hen of which had been killed by accident. The Partridges 

 hatched and brought up ten young Pheasants. The keeper 

 frequently showed his master, Colonel Burgoyne, and 

 others, the old Partridges with the young Pheasants, at 

 different periods of their growth.* 



During the day a covey of Partridges, keeping together, 

 are seldom seen on the wing, unless disturbed ; they fre- 

 quent grass fields, preferring the hedge sides, some of them 

 picking up insects, and occasionally the green leaves of 

 plants ; others dusting themselves in any dry spot where 

 the soil is loose, and this would seem to be a constant 

 practice with them in dry weather, if we may judge by 

 the numerous dusting-places, with the marks and feathers, 

 to be found about their haunts ; and sportsmen find in the 

 early part of the shooting-season, that young and weak 

 birds are frequently infested with numerous parasites. In 

 the afternoon the covey repair to some neighbouring field 

 of standing corn, or if that be cut, to the stubble, for the 

 second daily meal of grain ; and, this completed, the call- 

 note may be heard, according to White, as soon as the 

 beetles begin to buzz, and the whole move away together 

 to some spot where they jug, as it is called, that is, squat 

 and nestle close together for the night ; and from the ap- 

 pearance of the mutings, or droppings, which are generally 

 * Daniel's Supplement, page 397. 



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