148 THE PARTRIDGE 



This inquisitiveness affords the naturalist 

 delightful studies of character in wild creatures. 

 As might readily be supposed, curiosity often 

 leads to mischief. The partridge, when on leav- 

 ing her nest she covered it with leaves and grass, 

 safeguarded her treasures from many dangers. 

 How might the safety of the eggs have been 

 affected if the nest were uncovered and a red 

 bank-vole an innocent animal, indeed, com- 

 pared with the weasel or the stoat passed by ? 

 It is more than probable that the vole, his 

 curiosity awakened by the unusual sight of a 

 clutch of glossy brown eggs, would disarrange 

 them, either from sheer love of mischief, or 

 because he smelt some fresh, sweet stalks of 

 herbage which under the warmth of the hen 

 partridge's body had sprouted among the eggs, 

 and desired at all costs to obtain the tifc-bit. 

 The vole would not trouble about the safety of 

 the eggs as he searched for the young sprouts 

 beneath the nest. The desertion of their home by 

 the disappointed partridges would be well-nigh 

 inevitable after such a visit from the vole. 



From an incident I witnessed in the life of 

 Bright-eye, the water-vole, I might write, per- 

 haps, another story of disaster to an uncovered 

 partridge's nest. Late one evening in spring I 

 was lying in the long grass on the river-bank. 

 A few yards from my hiding-place, out on a 



