4 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PARTRIDGE 
charms if there were no ‘brown birds’ to be spied 
stealing away through the wild profusion of orchids 
and other wild flowers that scent the air so heavily, 
warned of our intrusion by the sound of our quiet 
footsteps, which, to their acute senses, are full of 
meaning. We question, indeed, whether even the 
grouse holds as high a position in popular favour as 
the unobtrusive partridge. The latter certainly enjoys 
a wider distribution than any other British game-bird ; 
indeed, the grouse would have been exterminated 
ere this but for the intervention of landowners and 
lessees of shootings, whereas even the English 
labourer, radical though his creed may be, possesses 
a sneaking regard for the partridge. More than that, 
all country dwellers really love the bird for its own 
sake, and exercise a healthy emulation in the solici- 
tude which they evince about its safety. It owes 
a great deal also to the protective coloration of its 
prettily pencilled plumage, to its cautious traits of 
character, and unpretentious presence. Besides, it is 
always with us, nestling in the fields of the home farm, 
straying into the garden or the orchard, seeking the 
neighbourhood of men, depending for its existence in 
great part upon the results of human industry. Vari- 
able and uncertain as our insular climate must be 
admitted to be, we rarely experience more than a few 
