COMMON PARTRIDGE. 49 



sleeping place, in the centre of the field ; but there is a suc- 

 cession which comes with the sun, and retires when that 

 becomes strong, returning again when the evening begins to 

 cool, and the shadow begins to lengthen ; and to keep down 

 the redundancy of these is the business of the partridge and 

 their congeners. 



All birds that feed upon the ground, live almost exclusively 

 upon insects, (it is to be understood that the word insect is 

 used in a popular sense for all animals which are not birds, 

 quadrupeds, reptiles or fishes, and we shall use it in that 

 sense, in order to avoid a number of technical names which 

 we are not called on now to explain,) when they are young, 

 and at all periods of their lives prefer insects to any other 

 food. Hence, if we had a good account of the diurnal and 

 seasonal appearances of those insects, we should be in pos- 

 session of a key to very many of the habits of birds, which 

 would, in very many instances, lead us to invite that which 

 we banish, and cherish that which, in our ignorance, we are 

 zealous to destroy.* 



Among these, the partridge would, without doubt, be 

 found to hold a very conspicuous place. The partridge fol- 

 lows the march of cultivation ; it multiplies exceedingly ; and 

 no persecution can drive it into the wilderness. The covey 

 will rise, and wheel about, and alight, again and again ; but 

 thin them as you may by the gun, the remainder will con- 

 tinue in the same turnip-field, or on the same clover-matted 

 stubble, as pertinaciously as ever a mountain tribe of human 

 beings clung to their fastnesses in a war of extirpation. JSTatu- 



* That the young of gallinaceous birds subsist largely upon insects is 

 true ; it is true also that the adults are partial to insects, but their sub- 

 stantial diet is grain, for the grinding of which their gizzard is especially 

 constructed. The ptarmigan and red grous live chiefly on berries, those 

 for example, of Empetrum nigrum, Vaccinium Vitis-id&a, Arbutus 

 alpina, and similar plants. They also crop the young shoots of the heath, 

 and pick up the seeds of various grasses. M. 



VOL. I. E 



