142 THE PARTRIDGE 



ridge was so surprised that he jumped aside and 

 flew to join his sable companions in a far corner 

 of the plough-land ; a field -vole under a withered 

 bramble scurried to his burrow in the moss ; a 

 rabbit in a clover patch beyond the hedge sat 

 up on his haunches to listen, drummed his 

 alarm, and hopped into the shadowy thicket. 

 For the voice of the young partridge was as 

 unlike the full clear voice of an older bird as the 

 first crow of a barnyard cockerel is unlike the 

 long-drawn challenge of an experienced rooster ; 

 and the rook, the vole, and the rabbit were 

 suspicious of its meaning. 



Then the partridge, remembering how the 

 arrival of the farmer in the morning had caused 

 him to hide for safety in the furze while the 

 plump little hen bird to which he had begun to 

 pay court hastily returned in the direction whence 

 she had come soon after dawn, flew leisurely over 

 the hedge and across the adjoining pasture where 

 the rabbits were frolicking in the clover patches 

 around stray tufts of withered grass. As he 

 flew the partridge sought everywhere for signs 

 of the presence of his kindred. His search 

 for a while seemed vain, and he was in the act 

 of alighting beside one of the grass tufts, when 

 his keen eye detected a dim round form standing 

 some distance away on a knoll among the 

 rabbits. Half running, half flying, and, now 



