FEBRUARY 31 



spawn is shed ; and plants, being stationary, are pro- 

 vided with endless devices for projecting their seed 

 or getting them carried as far away from themselves 

 as possible. Very different is the behaviour of most 

 birds, which show an intense solicitude for their fledg- 

 lings, but regard their eggs with comparative indiffer- 

 ence. Nothing is easier than to cause a partridge to 

 desert a dozen or fourteen eggs, which, one would 

 suppose, must have cost her some trouble to produce 

 and have been the source of legitimate pride to her. 

 It does not require very much provocation to make 

 her leave them for good, as if she thought ' Lots more 

 where those came from/ and goes off to lay a second 

 clutch. But, once the chicks are hatched, who so 

 anxious and pertinacious a guardian as she ? 



A friend has described to me a pretty little drama 

 he witnessed last year. Coming suddenly round the 

 sunny corner of a field, he disturbed a pair of par- 

 tridges with their brood. The cock bird flew at 

 him and struck his boot repeatedly, while the hen 

 gathered her chicks out of the herbage, being able, 

 apparently, to count them, for it was some time before 

 all of them obeyed her summons, and she did not begin 

 to move off until the last chick appeared. Then she 

 led them away, her mate remaining on guard, from 

 time to time renewing his attack on the intrusive boot 

 until his family had withdrawn to a safe distance. My 

 friend weighs about 12 stone, equal to 168 Ib. ; the 

 partridge, I suppose, weighs about 1 Ib. Imagine the 

 stoutness of the creature's spirit the warmth of his 

 devotion to wife and family, which nerved him for 



