34 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PARTRIDGE 



as shown in broken twigs and trampled herbage, the 

 curiosity of stoats and other ground vermin is 

 arrested. Even a field mouse is curious to know 

 why any little change has occurred in his preserves ; 

 his peering eyes often discover a dickybird's nest that 

 we had left, we had fancied, in perfect security. The 

 same principle applies to the nests of game-birds, and 

 all the more forcibly by reason of their being con- 

 stantly placed upon the ground. If a sad mishap has 

 befallen a clutch of eggs, and some of the number 

 have actually come to grief, the misfortune can best 

 be redeemed by such eggs as happen to have escaped 

 destruction being placed under the charge of a 

 domestic fowl. When the little fellows emerge into 

 the world, they soon learn to take care of themselves, 

 but the pupse of ants are requisite for their successful 

 rearing. 



' Two very different kinds of ant-hills supply the 

 eggs or ant-pupa3 to the young of game birds, and of 

 partridges in particular. First, there are the common 

 emmet heaps, or ant-hills, which are scattered all 

 over the land ; go where you will, you find them. 

 These the birds scratch and break up, picking out 

 the eggs as they fall from the light soil of the heaps ; 

 the partridges work them easily. But the ant-eggs 

 proper I am writing now from the game-preserving 



