ii2 MY NATURE NOTEBOOK. 



food. The power was very slowly acquired, of course ; 

 those young partridges which were at all precocious 

 in their generation in the matter of flying having 

 always the best chance of survival, and the pick of 

 each generation becoming a little better than their 

 predecessors. 



REVERSING THE PROCESS. 



Where partridges are living under perfectly natural 

 conditions the process still continues, of course ; and 

 though human science is too new a thing to have many 

 records as yet of progress made by wild creatures 

 within our knowledge, yet we may be sure that, on 

 the average, the wild partridge of to-day flies a little 

 earlier in life than the wild partridge of twenty years 

 ago. There are no places in England, however, where 

 partridges live under absolutely natural conditions. 

 Polecats and martens, for instance the worst of the 

 weasel tribes are nearly everywhere extinct; large 

 hawks and wild cats have been almost swept off the 

 face of the country. So the risks that the partridge 

 runs in early youth have been reduced, while the peril 

 of the shooting season has increased for the birds that 

 fly. So we may safely conclude that the tendency of 

 modern evolution of the partridge is less to encourage 

 them to fly when they are young than to discourage 

 them from flying when they are old. 



SUMMER HIDES HER AGE. 



July 17. Signs of waning summer multiply, 

 though the countryside grows more brilliant with 

 flowers day by day. Dame Nature, like a beauty 



