34 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PARTRIDGE 
as shown in broken twigs and trampled herbage, the 
curiosity of stoats and other ground vermin is 
arrested. Even a field mouse is curious to know 
why any little change has occurred in his preserves ; 
his peering eyes often discover a dickybird’s nest that 
we had left, we had fancied, in perfect security. The 
same principle applies to the nests of game-birds, and 
all the more forcibly by reason of their being con- 
stantly placed upon the ground. If a sad mishap has 
befallen a clutch of eggs, and some of the number 
have actually come to grief, the misfortune can best 
be redeemed by such eggs as happen to have escaped 
destruction being placed under the charge of a 
domestic fowl. When the little fellows emerge into 
the world, they soon learn to take care of themselves, 
but the pupze of ants are requisite for their successful 
rearing. 
‘Two very different kinds of ant-hills supply the 
eggs or ant-pupze to the young of game birds, and of 
partridges in particular. First, there are the common 
emmet heaps, or ant-hills, which are scattered all 
over the land; go where you will, you find them. 
These the birds scratch and break up, picking out 
the eggs as they fall from the light soil of the heaps ; 
the partridges work them easily. But the ant-eggs 
proper—I am writing now from the game-preserving 
