26 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PARTRIDGE 
expend upon their chosen partners. A burst of warm 
weather in February frequently causes the break up 
of a covey ; not that the birds desert their favourite 
feeding grounds, but that each couple takes up its 
quarters in some well-remembered haunt, and thence 
forward shuns the communal life in which it has found 
satisfaction. 
It would be unsafe to dogmatise too nicely as 
to these or any other idiosyncrasies of the partridge. 
Indeed, the most carefully considered statements are 
after all only approximations to the truth, and as 
fallible as other human judgments. The simple ex- 
planation of this is that the movements of the birds 
vary with the locality, with the aspect of the ground 
which is preserved, so that hard-and-fast rules are of 
little service. 
Moreover, it must be understood that, even when 
the partridges in some particular district appear to 
have settled their love affairs, and to have definitely 
paired off, a retrograde movement sometimes corrects 
their ardent desire to enter upon the bliss of their 
love period. Suppose, for instance, that a sudden 
spell of summer-like weather bursts upon us in the 
late days of winter. The mating of the partridges 
proceeds apace merrily enough. But the clouds 
gather, and the wind shifts to the north; a heavy 
