68 PARTRIDGE. 



before, and seemed much to enjoy the warmth of the fire, and at length fell a victim to 

 the decided foe of all favourite birds, a cat: his dogs were too generous to molest it." 



These, however, are but rare cases, and more commonly the home-reared Partridge on 

 acquiring maturity, gradually also acquires its natural wildness, and seeks the more congenial 

 atmosphere of the fields. 



That the Partridge will sometimes, under the influence of sudden surprise feign death 

 would appear from the following incident, related by Mr. J. J. Briggs, of Melbourne, 

 Derbyshire: — "February 18th, 1844: I was riding along a field, and came suddenly upon 

 a Partridge, it did not rise with a whirring noise, and wing its way out of danger, but 

 ran a few feet upon the turf, which was very bare, and squatted down suddenly, lying 

 as close as a hare on her seat: its head touched the grass, and its neck was stretched 

 out, as if it were a dead bird. I rode up to it quite close, but it moved not a feather, 

 and I could scarcely make it escape although I cracked my whip: it was not disabled, 

 for when it did rise it flew strong and well, and my impression was that it was feigning 

 to be a dead bird." 



The following extraordinary instance of courage in the Partridge, or whatever it may 

 be called, is recorded by Aubrey as having been mentioned by Charles the First. lie 

 says that when he was a Freshman at Oxford in 1642, he often went to see Charles the 

 First, who then resided at the university, at supper: on one of these occasions he heard 

 him say, "That as he was hawking in Scotland, he rode into the Quarry, and found 

 the covey of Partridges falling upon the Hawk;" and he adds that the Monarch said, 

 "I will swear upon the Book that it is true." 



Partridges are taken by poachers very readily, and in wholesale numbers, by means of 

 a kind of drag net, which, however, does not drag on the ground, but is carried by four 

 men, one at each corner, just enough off the ground to escape the bushes placed on the 

 grass fields to embarrass the poacher; several bullets are attached to the net at different 

 parts by cords, just long enough to allow them to touch the ground. The bullets are 

 sure to disturb the birds, and as soon as the poachers hear their fluttering they instantly 

 drop the net, and thus frequently capture the whole covey. Poachers, however, are cunning 

 fellows, and the following ingenious improvement upon this, the ordinary method, is men- 

 tioned by Meyer: — "For taking of Partridges, a singular method has been adopted by 

 some poachers, namely, to provide a setting dog, upon the head of which they fix a 

 lantern, for the purpose of his ranging the field at night: on his stopping, the poachers 

 know where the Partridges lie, and draw the net up to him accordingly. The gamekeepers 

 of the Earl of Carlisle, some time since (now about twenty years ago) being on their 

 nightly perambulations, were not a little astonished and alarmed at seeing a light traversing 

 the field in a very singular manner; they prepared their guns accordingly, and in a 

 short time the light made a sudden stop, when three or four men, whom they had not 



