THE PARTRIDGE 



IV 



THE CHANGING YEAR 



THE partridges of the moorland fed, like 

 the grouse, on young shoots of herbage, 

 tender seeds, and all kinds of soft-bodied in- 

 sects ; so also did the brown birds of the low- 

 land. The partridges on the wild mountain-side, 

 during periods of summer drought, were often 

 compelled to travel considerable distances in 

 search of food and water, and sometimes a 

 shepherd found a dead chick under a heather 

 spray beside a stony path mute witness that 

 little limbs had failed by the way, and that the 

 sun had not only given, but also taken, the sweet 

 fresh life of the year's late morning. 



But the habits of the partridge on the old 

 carpenter's farm were slightly different. The 

 same sun that shone unpityingly on the famished 

 weakling of the mountain waste was not the 

 giver of death to the birds in the lush valley 

 stretching to the hills around the hamlet by the 

 brook. These loved the summer heat, which, 

 while seldom parching the cultivated fields, 



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