128 THE VIRGINIAN PARTRIDGE. 



THE VIRGINIAN PARTRIDGE. 



" Nantes in gurgite vasto." Virgil. 



" LIKE the turkeys, many of the weaker partridges often fall 

 into the water while thus attempting lo cross, and generally 

 perish ; for, although they swim surprisingly, they have not 

 muscular power sufficient to keep up a protracted struggle." 

 (See Biography of Birds, p. 388.) 



Birds which can " swim surprisingly " will never 

 " perish " by the act of swimming ; neither would 

 they be under the necessity of having recourse to " a 

 protracted struggle" in a movement which requires 

 no struggle at all. A bird struggling in the act of 

 swimming, in order to save itself from drowning, is 

 about the same as if we were to struggle in our usual act 

 of walking, lest we perish therein. The very mention 

 of " a protracted struggle " argues that the partridge 

 cannot swim. A partridge on the water is nearly in 

 as great a scrape as a shark on shore. The latter, 

 by floundering, may, perchance, get into the water 

 again ; still we cannot say that a shark moves sur- 

 prisingly on land : and the former, by help of its 

 feet, may possibly reach the river's bank, through 

 an element as fatal to it as the shore is to the shark. 

 All birds, whether alive or dead, must naturally float 

 on the surface of the water ; but all birds cannot 

 swim: otherwise those birds which we commonly call 

 land birds would have to be new-modelled in forsn, 

 and would require a very different kind of plumage. 



We startle at the novel information of a partridge 

 " swimming surprisingly, " and we are anxious to 



