26 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PARTRIDGE 



expend upon their chosen partners. A burst of warm 

 weather in February frequently causes the break up 

 of a covey ; not that the birds desert their favourite 

 feeding grounds, but that each couple takes up its 

 quarters in some well-remembered haunt, and thence 

 forward shuns the communal life in which it has found 

 satisfaction. 



It would be unsafe to dogmatise too nicely as 

 to these or any other idiosyncrasies of the partridge. 

 Indeed, the most carefully considered statements are 

 after all only approximations to the truth, and as 

 fallible as other human judgments. The simple ex- 

 planation of this is that the movements of the birds 

 vary with the locality, with the aspect of the ground 

 which is preserved, so that hard-and-fast rules are of 

 little service. 



Moreover, it must be understood that, even when 

 the partridges in some particular district appear to 

 have settled their love affairs, and to have definitely 

 paired off, a retrograde movement sometimes corrects 

 their ardent desire to enter upon the bliss of their 

 love period. Suppose, for instance, that a sudden 

 spell of summer-like weather bursts upon us in the 

 late days of winter. The mating of the partridges 

 proceeds apace merrily enough. But the clouds 

 gather, and the wind shifts to the north ; a heavy 



