136 A GAMEKEEPER'S NOTE-BOOK 



enough to pass. But without a look to see if they 

 follow her or not, she flits across ; then, finding that 

 a few are with her, having managed the passage, she 

 hurries on, as if she had not a thought for those left 

 behind. They do their best to follow, only to fall 

 into the water, in which they are drowned, or, if the 

 dike is dry, to become exhausted in their vain efforts 

 to scale the steep sides. 



Yet it is hardly fair to compare pheasants to par- 

 tridges. The difference in their habits of life makes 



it necessary that partridges should learn to 

 Laws' 6 use th^ 1 * wings more quickly than pheasants. 



They will fly when no larger than starlings, 

 but pheasants grow as big as full-grown partridges 

 before making much use of their wings. Partridges 

 mature the more quickly : hatched in mid-June they 

 are nearly full grown by September, while pheasants, 

 born in May, are still in their baby stage in October. 

 Then the habit of the partridges to roost in coveys 

 on the ground fosters the instinct to spring into the 

 air and fly on the first sign of danger, all in a covey 

 acting as one bird for mutual protection. There 

 is some little excuse for the young pheasants that 

 butt into wire with such foolish persistency they 

 are so near to the wire that their legs have no chance 

 to launch them fairly into the air. While the desire 

 of a pheasant, on meeting wire outside a wood, is 

 to pass through into the covert, the idea of the par" 



