378 TETRAOJttDjE. 



in all one hundred and thirty- two brace of Partridges in 

 two days. 



At the commencement of the Part ridge- shooting season, 

 which in some countries of Europe occurs earlier than with 

 us, beginning in the canton of Geneva, for instance, on the 

 15th of August, the young birds, when disturbed and 

 separated, will, after resting in silence for a time, endeavour 

 to get back to the field they were bred in, apparently 

 in search of their former companions. Later in the season, 

 the whole covey, when flushed, will take to the woods 

 in some districts, and frequently when they have become 

 strong on the wing, the remains of several covies unite, 

 forming a pack, and are then very wild and difficult to 

 approach. 



Mr. Selby observes that the Partridge is found to vary 

 considerably in size, according to situation, and the different 

 nutritive qualities of food ; thus, the largest are met with 

 in districts where an abundance of grain prevails, whilst 

 upon the precincts of moors, where but an inconsiderable 

 portion of arable land is offered to them, they are much 

 inferior in size, although perhaps by no means evincing 

 a similar inferiority in point of flavour. 



It has been observed to me also, that on some heathy 

 districts in Surrey, as the Hurtwood and Bagshot Heath, 

 the Partridges seldom frequent the corn-lands, but subsist 

 on heath and hurtle-berries. These birds are not so white 

 in the flesh when dressed as others, and have some of the 

 flavour of the Grouse. 



The Partridge is so generally distributed over this coun- 

 try as to make an enumeration of particular localities un- 

 necessary ; but though plentiful in some of the low grounds 

 of Scotland, Mr. Macgillivray says there are none on the 

 islands of the outer or western Hebrides. M. Nilsson in- 



