OBSER VA TIONS ON BIRDS. 383 



owner's house for security, let the weather be ever so cold or blow- 

 ing. Partridges, it is true, roost on the ground, not having the 

 faculty of perching ; but then the same fear prevails in their minds ; 

 for through apprehension from pole-cats and stoats, they never 

 trust themselves to coverts, but nestle together in the midst of large 

 fields, far removed from hedges and coppices, which they love to 

 haunt in the day, and where at that season they can skulk more 

 secure from the ravages of rapacious birds. 



As to ducks and geese, their awkward splay web-feet forbid them 

 to settle on trees : they therefore, in the hours of darkness and 

 clanger, betake themselves to their own element the water, where 

 amidst large lakes and pools, like ships riding at anchor, they float 

 the whole night long in peace and security. WHITE. 



Guinea fowls not only roost on high, but in hard weather resort, 

 even in the daytime, to the very tops of the highest trees. Last 

 winter, when the ground was covered with snow, I discovered all 

 my guinea fowls, in the middle of the day, sitting on the highest 

 boughs of some very tall elms, chattering and making a great 

 clamour : I ordered them to be driven down lest they should be 

 frozen to death in so elevated a situation, but this was not effected 

 without much difficulty ; they bein veiy unwilling to quit their 

 lofty abode, notwithstanding one of them had its feet so much 

 frozen that we were obliged to kill it. I know not how to account 

 for this, unless it was occasioned by their aversion to the snow on 

 the ground, they being birds that come originally from a hot 

 climate. 



Notwithstanding the awkward splay web-feet (as Mr. White calls 

 them) of the duck genus, some of the foreign species have the 

 power of settling on the boughs of trees apparently with great ease ; 

 an instance of which I have seen in the Earl of Ashburnham's 

 menagerie, where the summer duck, anas sponsa, flew up, and 

 settled on the branch of an oak-tree in my presence : but whether 

 any of them roost on trees in the night, we are not informed by 

 any author that I am acquainted with.* I suppose not, but that, 

 like the rest of the genus, they sleep on the water, where the birds 

 of this genus are not always perfectly secure, as will appear from 

 the following circumstance which happened in this neighbourhood 

 a few years since, as I was credibly informed. A female fox was 



* Several ducks are of arboreal habits, perch and roost upon trees and make their nest 

 in hollows or in appropriate situations among the large branches. The common wild-duck 

 has been known to breed in a pollard willow. 



