24 NMATURAL HISTORY OF THE PARTRIDGE 
will take its pleasure where its tastes can best be 
developed. In quiet country places, for instance, a 
disused quarry, that has been allowed to become the 
home of many wild plants, is a likely enough haven 
for the ‘ balming’ birds, to which the varied character 
of the ground and its patches of small cover are 
highly acceptable. The partridge is a bird of resource, 
and takes his pleasure accordingly. In default of a 
sequestered nook, he and his fellows occasionally 
perform their toilette in the light dust that covers the 
surface of an old turnpike road, shaking the pulverised 
earth all over their plumage with every manifestation 
of pleasure. 
