410 OBSERVATIONS ON 



through apprehensions from pole-cats and stoats, they 

 never trust themselves to coverts, but nestle together in 

 the midst of large fields, far removed from hedges and 

 coppices, which they love to haunt in the day, and where 

 at that season they can sculk more secure from the ravages 

 of rapacious birds. 



As to ducks and geese, their awkward splay web-feet 

 forbid them to setde on trees; they therefore, in the 

 hours of darkness and danger, betake themselves to their 

 own element the water, where, amidst large lakes and pools, 

 like ships riding at anchor, they float the whole night long 

 in peace and security. 



HEN PARTRIDGE 



A hen partridge came out of a ditch, and ran along 

 shivering with her wings, and crying out as if wounded 

 and unable to get from us. While the dam acted this 

 distress, the boy who attended me saw her brood, that was 

 small and unable to fly, run for shelter into an old fox- 

 earth under the bank. So wonderful a power is instinct. 



A HYBRID PHEASANT 



Lord Stawell sent me from the great lodge in the Holt 

 a curious bird for my inspection. It was found by the 

 spaniels of one of his keepers in a coppice, and shot on the 

 wing. The shape, air, and habit of the bird, and the scarlet 

 ring round the eyes, agreed well with the appearance of a 

 cock pheasant : but then the head and neck, and breast 

 and belly were of a glossy black : and though it weighed 

 three pounds three ounces and a half,^ the weight of a large 

 full-grown cock pheasant, yet there were no signs of any 

 spurs on the legs, as is usual with all grown cock pheasants, 

 who have long ones. The legs and feet were naked of 

 feathers, and therefore it could be nothing of the grouse 

 kind. In the tail were no long bending feathers, such as 



' Hen pheasants usually weigh only two pounds ten ounces. 



