no MY NATURE NOTEBOOK. 



prudent father contributes his share of the clamour 

 from the safe side of the hedge. But the youngsters 

 do not need his assistance. They vanished like mice 

 into cover of the hedgerow herbage during the instant 

 that their mother's flurried return attracted your eyes 

 from them, and you may search for them in vain. 

 If, however, as often happens, some were obliged to 

 bolt into one hedge and some into the other, because 

 you were in the midst of them, it is worth while to 

 wait a little and watch the stealthy tactics by which 

 the family re-forms its ranks. Sometimes the little 

 mother goes clucking down the road, while the young 

 follow on each side under cover, and presently slip 

 out and join her, when they will disappear all together 

 through the hedge, to find the cautious father on 

 the other side. At other times the mother will slip 

 through the hedge by herself, and, running down the 

 further side, call her children from what she conceives 

 to be a safe distance. Then you may see first one 

 and then another of the little ones that are in the 

 wrong hedge furtively emerge, and make a bolt of it 

 across the road. Then all the clucking and cheeping 

 ceases, and when you come to the gate you will need 

 sharp eyes to catch a glimpse of any of that family 

 again. 



PRECOCIOUS FLIERS. 



Though the baby partridges' power of flight is 

 feeble, the wonder is that they can fly at all when 

 scarcely a quarter grown, seeing that most birds grow 

 almost to full size in their nests before their flight 

 feathers are large and stiff enough to carry them a 

 yard. To the inexperienced eye the newly fledged 



