182 THE PARTRIDGE 



ways of the yellowing stalks. Every morning 

 in their wanderings the birds observed new signs 

 of denudation among the fields, till at last even 

 the barley beyond the root-crop had been cut 

 and garnered. Now, apart from the copses and 

 the brakes of ferns and furze and bramble where 

 they could not as a rule obtain the food they 

 most desired, the only places in which the 

 partridges remained close hidden as they searched 

 for seeds and insects were under the big leaves 

 of swede and mangold, or amid the patches of 

 clover springing up here and there in the stubble. 

 For a time, after harvest, the shorn lands seemed 

 so utterly desolate that the covey dared not 

 visit them when the sun was high. Occasion- 

 ally, however, towards dusk, the boldest of the 

 birds ventured a little way out from the hedges 

 to pick up the grains shaken by the busy har- 

 vesters from the sheaves, but generally they kept 

 to those spots on the farm where conditions 

 had not recently undergone a change. 



In the crisp, calm autumn days, they were 

 often startled by the loud report of a gun. 

 Occasionally, as soon as the noise had died away, 

 a rabbit would be seen hastening across the 

 pasture to its burrow in the hedge ; or, at other 

 times, a covey from an adjoining farm would 

 fly in consternation to the root-field, and, not- 

 withstanding many attempts on the part of the 



