The Natural History of Selborne 403 



from us. While the dam acted this distress, the boy who attended 

 me saw her brood, that was small and unable to fly, run for shelter 

 into an old fox-earth under the bank. So wonderful a power is 

 instinct. WHITE. 



It is not uncommon to see an old partridge feign itself wounded 

 and run along on the ground fluttering and crying before either dog 

 or man, to draw them away from its helpless unfledged young ones. 

 I have seen it often, and once in particular I saw a remarkable 

 instance of the old bird's solicitude to save its brood. As I was 

 hunting a young pointer, the dog ran on a brood of very small 

 partridges : the old bird cried, fluttered, and ran tumbling along 

 just before the dog's nose till she had drawn him to a considerable 

 distance, when she took wing, and flew still farther off, but not out 

 of the field : on this the dog returned to me, near which place the 

 young ones lay concealed in the grass, which the old bird no sooner 

 perceived than she flew back again to us, settled just before the 

 dog's nose again, and by rolling and tumbling about, drew ofF his 

 attention from her young, and thus preserved her brood a second 

 time. I have also seen, when a kite has been hovering over a covey 

 of young partridges, the old birds fly up at the bird of prey, scream- 

 ing and fighting with all their might to preserve their brood. 

 MARKWICK. 



A HYBRID PHEASANT. 



LORD STAWELL sent me from the great lodge in the Hold a curious 

 bird for my inspection. It was found by the spaniels of one of his 

 keepers in a coppice, and shot on the wing. The shape, air, and 

 habit of the bird, and the scarlet ring round the eyes, agreed well 

 with the appearance of a cock pheasant ; but then the head and 

 neck, and breast, and belly were of a glossy black : and though it 

 weighed three pounds three ounces and a half,* the weight of a full 

 grown cock pheasant, yet there were no signs of any spurs on the 



* Hen pheasants usually weigh only two pounds ten ounces. 



