156 LEWIS'S AMERICAN SPORTSMAN. 



considers such an intermission of his sport as an actual loss of 

 time, we are forced to class him with that unenviable race of beings 

 known as pot-hunters, or, at all events, but one degree above them, 

 and, of course, mean and narrow-minded in the extreme. 



" Some greedy elves 

 Pot-hunters vile ! appear to grieve 

 If forced a single bird to leave. 

 Such men avoid, and be your pride 

 With those that soon are satisfied." 



EARLY DAWN. 



Before leaving their roosts in the morning, partridges appear to 

 welcome the return of a new day, and to congratulate themselves 

 on the general safety of the family circle, by a low, shrill, twitter- 

 ing noise, somewhat resembling the sounds produced by young 

 turkeys, or perhaps more cheerful and harmonious than that often 

 heard issuing from a covey when in the act of springing, if dis- 

 turbed while feeding in an open field. These mutual greetings at 

 an end, the covey take their flight to some favorite feeding-ground, 

 most generally the adjoining field, or perhaps run off in quest of 

 food immediately around them ; but they are not very apt to roost 

 in the same field where they habitually feed. 



The reason why partridges seldom or never roost in the same 

 field where they feed is perhaps owing to a natural instinctive pro- 



