PARTRIDGES. 



293 



they were therefore removed, from a fear that he might tread 

 upon or neglect them. 



Partridges. 



Generally speaking, the Partridge is a much shier bird than 

 the Pheasant, and though we have found it, in the above case, 

 quitting its own species to live with another, it can seldom be 

 induced to lay aside its natural habits and become quite tame. 

 Occasionally, however, by great care, they have been known 

 to attach themselves to man. 



In a clergyman's family, one was reared, which became so 

 familiar that it would attend the parlour at breakfast and other 

 times, and would afterwards stretch itself before the fire, 

 seeming to enjoy the warmth, as if it were its natural bask 

 on a sunny bank. The dogs of the house never molested it ; 

 but unfortunately it one day fell under the paws of a strange 

 cat, and was killed. 



The Partridge, as is well known, usually builds in corn- 

 fields, where, undisturbed amidst a forest of tall wheat-stems, 

 it rears its brood. Like other birds, it sometimes, however, 

 chooses a very different sort of nursery, as, for instance, a 

 hay-stack, on the top of which a nest was once formed, a 

 covey hatched, and safely carried off. 



In England we have but one sort; but in France, and other 



