20 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PARTRIDGE 



their senses of sight and sound with such refined 

 accuracy that very little of what goes on around them 

 really escapes their attention. They know, most 

 likely, every grouse nest on the farm, and can tell you 

 where a covey of partridges can be found at almost 

 any hour of the day. 



Highland shepherds and their helpers take a 

 similar interest in the red grouse that nest upon the 

 sheep farms, especially if employed by the proprietor, 

 whose interests they naturally desire to protect. The 

 partridge has many friends besides professed game 

 preservers. Were it otherwise, it would have become 

 extinct ere this in many districts. Sportsmen when 

 shooting over dogs prefer to kill off the leading birds 

 of a covey, if possible, so that the remaining, members 

 of the covey become scattered and lose their powers of 

 combination for a while. The theory involved has, no 

 doubt, a large element of truth for its substratum, but 

 it must not be pressed too far. Still it is wonderful 

 how soon the members of a broken covey contrive to 

 reunite and adopt fresh leaders, to whose vigilance and 

 guidance they proceed to entrust their safety. ' In a 

 dead hard winter, the partridge is not put to it as his 

 larger associates are, for the bird naturally is a ground 

 one ; all his living is got from it ; he lives, broods, 

 and jugs there. No matter how deep the snow may 



