Nest-building ; Incubation, and Migration. 249 



Allen, " I met with a brood of young plumed partridges in 

 Oregon. The male, who had charge of them, performed 

 the usual tactics of feigning lameness, and tried his very 

 best to draw my attention from the young, and, seeing I 

 paid no attention to him, showed a great deal of distress. 

 The young scattered promptly in all directions, and the 

 majority were most effectually hidden in an instant."* 



One more example may be given. It is from Mr. C. J. 

 Cornish's pleasant book, "Wild England of To-day." 



"Moving towards the lake [in Richmond Park], we 

 flushed," he says,t " a pair of wild drakes from a shallow 

 ditch, and almost at the same moment a lame duck 

 shuffled distressfully from the same spot, and moved off 

 slowly, with apparent difficult}-, in a direction parallel to 

 the lake. The counterfeit was so remarkable that, had we 

 not caught a glimpse of a small black object dashing into 

 the marsh which lay a few feet from the drain, on the 

 opposite side from the course taken by the duck, no sus- 

 picion as to the reality of her disablement would have 

 occurred. Meanwhile, the old bird invited pursuit, lying 

 down, as if unable to move further ; and, resolved to see 

 the end of so finished and courageous a piece of acting, 

 we accepted the invitation and gave chase. For twenty 

 yards or more the bird shuffled and stumbled through the 

 rhododendron bushes, until she made for the lake side, 

 where the ground was more open. Then, running fast, 

 with her head up and discarding all pretence of lameness, 

 for another twenty yards, she took wing and flew slowly 

 just before us, at about three feet from the ground, until 

 she reached the limit of the enclosure, when, uttering a 

 derisive quack, she rose quickly above the trees and flew 

 out over the lake. Anxious to see the sequel to this 



* Nineteenth Century, April, 1893, p. 596. 

 t Op. tit., pp. 116, 117. 



