52 GALLING. 



know, but to know is to enjoy. That which, if it remained, 

 would injure the rest, is our legitimate portion ; and such is 

 the productiveness of nature, that it is in all cases not only 

 sufficient, but the maximum of what we can permanently 

 obtain. 



In the case of those birds which are desirable as food, 

 whether they reside with us always, as the partridge does, or 

 tarry only for a season, nature points out when our portion 

 can be most safely and advantageously taken, with as much 

 certainty as it points out when the crop of the field may be 

 reaped, or the produce of the orchard gathered. The culm 

 and the twig bend to bring the ear and the apple within our 

 reach ; and the birds flock that we may use the net, and take 

 short and whirling flights, in order that we may use the gun. 

 They do so when they are in the very best season for our use, 

 and when the removal of the superabundance will tend most 

 to the preservation of that which is left. They do not so at 

 other seasons ; and therefore to attack them then is much the 

 same in principle and in profit as it would be to pull the 

 green ears in the field, or the half-grown fruit in the garden. 



Partridges begin to pair in February, about which time 

 there are often fierce combats between the males, obviously 

 for the purpose of dispersing the pairs which have been con- 

 gregated during the winter. The eggs are not, in general, 

 dropped till toward the end of May ; and the young break 

 the shell about Midsummer. The time of dropping the eggs 

 is thus rather longer than that spent in incubation ; but the 

 times and the operations are both accelerated by heat and 

 drought, and both retarded by cold. The hill partridges in 

 the north are at least three weeks later than those of the rich 

 agricultural parts of the south. 



Partridges are easily tamed, but do not breed in confine- 

 ment, though instances have been mentioned of females in 

 that state producing eggs. Addled eggs are, however, pro- 



