PARTRIDGES. ] 05 



eight young ones were produced; and the cock, who 

 was now in some measure the parent of this numer- 

 ous offspring, appeared a good deal perplexed, when 

 he saw so many little animals pecking around him, 

 and requiring his constant vigilance ; they were 

 therefore removed, from a fear that he might tread 

 upon or neglect them. 



Generally speaking, the Partridge is a much shyer 

 bird than the Pheasant, and though we have found 

 it, in the above case, quitting its own species to 

 live with another, it can seldom be induced to lay 

 aside its natural habits and become quite tame. 

 Occasionally, however, by great care, they have been 

 known to attach themselves to man. 



In a clergyman's family, one was reared, which 

 became so familiar, that it would attend the parlour 

 at breakfast, and other times, and would afterwards 

 stretch itself before the fire, seeming to enjoy the 

 warmth, as if it were its natural bask on a sunny 

 bank. The dogs of the house never molested it, 

 but unfortunately, it one day fell under the paws of 

 a strange cat, and was killed. 



The Partridge, as is well known, usually builds in 

 corn-fields, where, undisturbed amidst a forest of iall 

 wheat-stems, it rears its brood. Like other birds, it 

 sometimes, however, chooses a very different sort of 

 nursery, as, for instance, a hay-stack, on the top of 

 which a nest was once formed, a covey hatched, and 

 safely carried off. 



In England we have but one sort, but in France, 

 and other parts of Europe, they have beautiful varie- 

 ties, the red-legged, Barbary Partridges, &c. ; and 

 in America, there are, again, other sorts, peculiar to 



