50 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PARTRIDGE 



Our own experience could furnish other instances 

 in which partridges have proved highly amenable to 

 domestication. 



Mr. T. H. Nelson mentions two hand-reared birds 

 which lived in a walled garden, following the gardener 

 about during the performance of his duties, and even 

 allowing strangers to approach within a yard of them. 

 Originally, these birds roosted in the garden ; but, 

 after having been alarmed by a cat, they acquired the 

 habit of flying out to roost ; returning, however, at 

 daylight to receive their breakfast. 



It is not very surprising, after all, that birds reared 

 under a domestic fowl should attach themselves to those 

 who care for them. But even birds that have known 

 the joys of freedom from the time that they chipped 

 the egg-shells as tiny chicks, are susceptible to kindly 

 influences if captured adult. We refer especially to 

 birds that have been taken alive owing to some 

 unwonted circumstance. Thus a pair which Mr. G. 

 Stone saved out of a covey, which had been caught in 

 a town, became very tame when turned into a walled 

 garden, and soon learnt to attend an open window 

 when the hour of feeding them arrived. 



Oddly enough, there are well-authenticated in- 

 stances of partridges voluntarily attaching themselves 

 to the neighbourhood of human beings. Thus, in 



