T24 ANIMALS AT WORK AND PLAY 



their native home. In a gale on September ist, 

 the writer saw a successful effort made by part- 

 ridges to avoid the consequences of thus abandoning 

 themselves to the wind. A covey of very strong 

 birds, which had been hatched on the highest part 

 of the Berkshire Downs, was flushed down wind, 

 and, rising high in the air, the whole brood were 

 carried in a few seconds to the extreme edge of the 

 hill, below which was a sudden fall of some 300 ft. 

 into a country quite unknown to these hill-birds. As 

 they approached the limit of their own district, the 

 partridges made an extraordinary effort to release 

 themselves from the power of the wind, and to avoid 

 being forced over the hill-top. Closing their wings, 

 they* sank almost to the ground, and so gained the 

 slight shelter of a low bank. This enabled them to 

 wheel, and so to face the gale. Even then they 

 might not have achieved their object, had not a small 

 thorn-bush broken the force of the wind just on the 

 edge of the down. The whole covey used the respite 

 so given, and skimming up almost in single file, they 

 alighted one by one behind the bush, on the extreme 

 limit of their native ground. But recent instances 

 are not wanting in which partridges have been carried 

 out to sea, when drifting on the wind. At Sizewell, 

 in Suffolk, nine partridges were blown out to sea, 

 and dropped in the water some 400 yards from 



