THE POULTRY KIND 03 



mountain-berries, which, while young, are their only food. As they grow 

 older, theii appetites grow stronger, and they feed upon the tops of hether, 

 and the cones of the pine-tree. In this manner they soon come to per 

 fection ; they are a hardy bird, their food lies every where before them, 

 and it would seem that they should increase in great abundance. Bui 

 this is not the case; their numbers are thinned by rapacious birds and 

 oeasts 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 t\Y,o, 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 

 lime are so inattentive 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 con- 

 tests the bird which comes off victorious takes possession of the female 

 seraglio, as it is certain they have no faithful attachments.* 



CHAPTER IX. 



OF THE PARTRIDGE AND ITS VARIETIES. 



THE Partridge may be particularly considered as belonging to the 

 sportsman. It is a bird which even our laws have taken under pro- 

 tection, and like a peacock, or a hen, may be ranked as private pro- 

 perty. 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 wanting, 

 they utterly slight and despise the best spread tables, as if there could 

 oe no feast without them." But however this might be in the times 

 of our historian, the partridge is now 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 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 



* This account of the Cock of the Wood is taken from he Journal (Economiquo, 

 itfd may be relied on. 



