WILDWOOD WAYS 



quills which helped support his weight but 

 did not take away from the clean-cut, star- 

 shaped impression of the toes. Rather 

 they made lesser points between these 

 four greater ones and added to the star- 

 like appearance of the tracks. 



I knew him for a male bird by the broad 

 tufts of glossy black feathers with which 

 his neck was adorned. It was the first 

 week in February, but then Saint Valen- 

 tine's day comes on the fourteenth, and 

 on this day, as all folklore which right 

 or wrong we must perforce believe in- 

 forms us, the birds choose their mates. 

 My cock partridge must have been plan- 

 ning a love sonnet, weaving rhymes as 

 he wove his trail in rhythmic curves that 

 coquetted with one another as rhymes 

 do. His head nodded the rhythm as his 

 feet fell in the proper places. Now and 

 then he bent forward in his walk as one 

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