COURTIERS IN PENS 61 



will not do to put any cock and hen together and 

 expect them to pair. The hen is quite as particular 

 in accepting a mate as the cock in selecting one for 

 his attentions. Sometimes a hen wins the hearts of 

 several suitors, and then there will be fighting, the 

 strongest securing the prize, the defeated contentedly 

 pairing off with the less sought-for hens. When a 

 partridge betrothal has been ratified, the happy pair 

 announce the fact to their friends by keeping sedu- 

 lously together, apart from the other occupants of 

 the general pen. The partridge is seldom quarrel- 

 some : in a wild state a cock bird will go far afield in 

 search of a mate if he cannot find one peaceably in 

 his usual haunts or he may make up his mind to go 

 through the season unwedded. Sometimes, but rarely, 

 it will happen that trouble arises through an amorous 

 cock partridge losing his mate late in the nesting season 

 and trying to run away with another's wife. But while 

 some partridges show a pugnacious temperament, as 

 they boast no spurs, like cock pheasants, their duels 

 mostly take the form of chasing and running. 



In March the hawks pair and the pairs visit and 

 examine all sorts of old nests. The nest of a kestrel 

 is usually found in the heart of a wood though it 

 may be recognised as a kestrel's only by the sight 

 of the birds flying off, for they rear their young 

 in old sparrow-hawks' nests, or in a magpie's, 



