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CHAPTER III 
LOVE AND COURTSHIP 
THE season of courtship among the field birds 
possesses an interest for every one who really cares 
for country life, marking as it does the revival of 
amatory passions that have remained dormant through 
the autumn and winter months. The partridge, like the 
red grouse, begins to pair long before frost and snow 
have disappeared from the higher grounds ; but the 
former bird is more gregarious than the grouse during 
the first days of spring ; and though its erotic tempera- 
ment induces it to form attachments that result in the 
break up of a covey, yet the partridge selects its 
mate before seceding from the common life. The 
paired birds do not at once retire from the society 
of their companions. For a few days or weeks they 
continue to forage in company, at night they ‘jug’ 
together ; a trained eye, well versed in detecting the 
subtle and fine gestures of the birds, takes notice 
of the attention which the cock birds have begun to 
