36 THE PARTRIDGE. 



finding it by scratching the ground with their feet. They fre- 

 quently sit close together, covering their young ones with their 

 wings ; and from this situation they are not easily roused. If, 

 however, they are disturbed, most persons acquainted with rural 

 affairs know the confusion that ensues. The male gives the 

 first signal of alarm, by a peculiar cry of distress ; throwing 

 himself at the same moment more immediately into the way of 

 danger, in order to mislead the enemy. He flutters along the 

 ground, hanging his wings, and exhibiting every symptom of de- 

 bility. By this stratagem he seldom fails of so far attracting 

 the attention of the intruder, as to allow the female to conduct 

 the helpless, unfledged brood into some place of security. 

 "A partridge (says Mr. White, who gives an instance of this 

 instinctive sagacity) came out of a ditch, and ran along shivering 

 with her wings, and crying out as if wounded and unable to get 

 from us. While the dam feigned this distress, a boy who at- 

 tended me, saw the brood, which was small and unable to fly, 

 run for shelter into an old fox's hole, under the bank." Mr. 

 Markwick relates, that " as he was once hunting with a young 

 pointer, the dog ran on a brood of very small partridges. The 

 old bird cried, fluttered, and ran tumbling along just before the 

 dog's nose, till she had drawn him to a considerable distance ; 

 when she took wing and flew farther off, but not out of the 

 field. On this the dog returned nearly to the place where the 

 young ones lay concealed in the grass ; which the old bird no 

 sooner perceived, than she flew back again, settled just before 

 the dog's nose, and a second time acted the same part, rolling 

 and tumbling about till she drew off his attention from her 

 brood, and thus succeeded in preserving them," 



The eggs of the partridge are frequently destroyed by weasels, 

 stoats, crows, magpies, and other animals. When this has been 

 the case, the female frequently makes another nest and lays 

 afresh. The produce of these second hatchings is always a 





