SUMMER LIFE OF THE PARTRIDGE 155 



up the loose loam over their plumage, while the 

 chicks, curious and surprised as when they par- 

 took of the morning's meal, attempted, with 

 comically feeble gestures, to share in the per- 

 formance of which as yet they could not under- 

 stand the meaning. The afternoon was spent in 

 wandering through the corn and along by the 

 tangled hedge behind the nest, and the evening 

 in feeding and playing among the cool shadows 

 of the root field. 



For several days the brood remained in the 

 near neighbourhood of the nest. The mother 

 bird still hoped for an increase in the number of 

 her chicks ; but one morning, having recognised 

 that her hopes were vain, and having removed 

 the two unhatched eggs, she led the young away, 

 and nevermore returned with them to sleep in 

 the shelter of the gorse. Had they continued to 

 frequent cover, the young birds, unable to fly, 

 and leaving behind them a strong, widely diffused 

 and easily followed scent, would, sooner or later, 

 have been attacked by prowling stoats or weasels. 

 During the rest of the summer they generally 

 slept in some place among the open fields, where 

 the dew-fall was not so heavy as on the dense 

 verdure of the meadow grass and the corn. 

 The mother partridge, her duties sometimes 

 shared by her mate whose solicitude was almost 

 equal to her own nightly took her chicks to the 



