210 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES. 



appearance on the Susquehanna, as low down 

 as Port Deposit. The pilgrimage is said to ter- 

 minate in the return of the birds to their native 

 haunts, and their re-division into coveys of from 

 eight or ten to fifteen or twenty. 



In regard to the companies of confirmed old 

 bachelors, asserted by Forrester to have been 

 found in the family of the American partridge, 

 it is our misfortune, claiming as we do, to be- 

 long to the distinguished fraternity, never to 

 have encountered these feathered odd-fellows. 

 In the crowded English preserves, according to 

 the statement of various old writers, such socie- 

 ties do actually exist, and these old cocks do 

 incontinently wage war upon the young ones, 

 partly for the sake of enjoying their privacy, 

 undisturbed by ridiculous affairs of gallantry, 

 which they have long ago found to be mere 

 vanity and vexation of soul, and partly from a 

 delectable spirit of moroseness which, thank 

 heaven, every bachelor beneath the stars, has 

 an undisputed right to affect, whenever he 

 sees fit. We are, certainly, much indebted 

 to Mr. Herbert's penetration in discovering 

 these little isolated communities of Benedicts, 

 which still endure in the midst of gynarchies, 

 and whose habits tally so remarkably with 



