222 ON VARIOUS PARTS 



and carried it off, as we afterwards disco-* 

 vered. 



At another time, when partridge-shoot- 

 ing with a friend, we saw a ring- tail hawk 



' rise out of a pit with some large bird in its 

 claws ; though at a great distance, we both 

 fired and obliged it to drop its prey, which 

 proved to be one of the partridges which 

 we were in pursuit of; and lastly, in an 

 evening, I shot at and plainly saw that I 

 had wounded a partridge, but it being late 



- was obliged to go home without finding 

 it again. The next morning I walked round 

 my land without any gun, but a favourite 

 old spaniel followed my heels. When I 

 came near the field where I wounded the 

 bird the evening before, I heard the par- 

 tridges call, and seemed to be much dis- 

 turbed. On my approaching the bar-way 

 they all rose, some on my right and some 

 on my left hand ; and just before and over 

 my head, I perceived (though indistinctly, 

 from the extreme velocity of their motion) 

 two birds fly directly against each other, 

 when instantly, to my great astonishment, 



