THE POULTRY KIND. 



507 



their appetites grow stronger, and they then 

 feed upon the tops of hether, and the cones 

 of the pine-tree. In this manner they soon 

 come to perfection: they are a hardy bird, 

 their food lies every where before them, and 

 it would seem that they should increase in 

 great abundance. But this is not the case ; 

 their numbers are thinned by rapacious birds 

 and beasts of every kind ; and still more by 

 their own salacious contests. 



As soon as the clutching is over, which the 

 female performs in the manner of a hen, the 

 whole brood follows the mother for about a 

 month or two; at the end of which the young 

 males entirely forsake her, and keep in great 



harmony together till the beginning of spring. 

 At this season they begin, for the first time, 

 to feel the genial access ; and then adieu to 

 all their former friendships ! They begin to 

 consider each other as rivals ; and the rage 

 of concupiscence quite extinguishes the spirit 

 of society. They fight each other like 

 game-cocks ; and at that time are so in- 

 attentive to their own safety, that it often 

 happens that two or three of them are killed 

 at a shot. It is probable that in these 

 contests, the bird which comes off victori- 

 ous takes possession of the female seraglio, 

 as it is certain they have no faithful attach- 

 ments." 



CHAPTER LCVI. 



OF THE PARTRIDGE, AND ITS VARIETIES. 



THE Partridge may be particularly con- 

 sidered as belonging to the sportsman. It is 

 a bird which even our laws have taken under 

 protection ; and, like a peacock or a hen, may 

 be ranked as a private property. The only 

 difference now is, that we feed one in our 

 farms, the other in our yards : that these are 

 contented captives ; those, servants that have 

 it in their power to change their master, by 

 changing their habitation. 



" These birds," says Willoughby, " hold the 

 principal place in the feasts and entertainments 

 of princes ; without which their feasts are 

 esteemed ignoble, vulgar, and of no account. 

 The Frenchmen do so highly value, and are 

 so fond of, the partridge, that if they be want- 

 ing, they utterly slight and despise the best- 

 spread tables ; as if there could be no feast 

 without them." But however this might be 

 in the times of our historian, the partridge is 

 nosv too common in France to be considered 

 as a delicacy : and this, as well as every other 

 simple dish, is exploded for luxuries of a more 

 compound invention. 



In England, where the partridge is much 



This account is from the Journal GEconomique, and 

 may be relied on. 

 MO. 43 it 44. 



scarcer, and a great deal dearer, it is still a 

 favourite delicacy at the tables of the rich ; 

 and the desire of keeping it to themselves, has 

 induced them to make laws for its preserva- 

 tion, no way harmonizing with the general 

 spirit of English legislation. What can be 

 more arbitrary than to talk of preserving the 

 game ; which, when defined, means no more 

 than that the poor shall abstain from what the 

 rich have taken a fancy to keep for themselves? 

 If these birds could, like a cock or a hen, be 

 made legal property, could they be taught to 

 keep within certain districts, and only feed on 

 those grounds that belong to the man whose 

 entertainments they improve, it then might, 

 with some show of justice, be admitted, that 

 as a man fed them, so he might claim them. 

 But this is not the case ; nor is it in any man's 

 power to lay a restraint upon the liberty of 

 these birds, that, when let loose, put no limits 

 to their excursions. They feed every where ; 

 upon every man's ground ; and no man can 

 say these birds are fed only by me. Those 

 birds which are nourished by all, belong to all; 

 nor can any one man, or any set of men, lay 

 claim to them, when still continuing in a state 

 of nature. 



I never walked out about the environs of 



4E 



