PARTRIDGE. 41 



throws herself in the path, fluttering along, and beating the 

 ground with her wings, as if sorely wounded, using every arti- 

 fice she is master of, to entice the passenger in pursuit of herself, 

 uttering at the same time certain peculiar notes of alarm, well 

 understood by the young, who dive separately amongst the 

 grass, and secrete themselves till the danger is over; and the 

 parent, having decoyed the pursuer to a safe distance, returns, 

 by a circuitous route, to collect and lead them off. This well 

 known manoeuvre, which nine times in ten is successful, is 

 honourable to the feelings and judgment of the bird, but a 

 severe satire on man. The affectionate mother, as if sensible of 

 the avaricious cruelty of his nature, tempts him with a larger 

 prize, to save her more helpless offspring; and pays him, as 

 avarice and cruelty ought always to be paid, with mortification 

 and disappointment. 



The eggs of the Quail have been frequently placed under the 

 domestic hen, and hatched and reared with equal success as her 

 own; though, generally speaking, the young Partridges being 

 more restless and vagrant, often lose themselves, and disap- 

 pear. The hen ought to be a particularly good nurse, not at all 

 disposed to ramble, in which case they are very easily raised. 

 Those that survive, acquire all the familiarity of common 

 chickens; and there is little doubt that if proper measures were 

 taken, and persevered in for a few years, that they might be 

 completely domesticated. They have been often kept during 

 the first season, and through the whole of the winter, but have 

 uniformly deserted in the spring. Two young Partridges that 

 were brought up by a hen, when abandoned by her, associated 

 with the cows, which they regularly followed to the fields, re- 

 turned with them when they came home in the evening, stood 

 by them while they were milked, and again accompanied them 

 to the pasture. These remained during the winter, lodging in 

 the stable, but as soon as spring came they disappeared. Of 

 this fact I was informed by a very respectable lady, by whom 

 they were particularly observed. 



It has been frequently asserted to me, that the Quails lay oc- 



VOL. III. G 



