Birds. 2609 



are more suited to their stomachs than corn ; and before they arrive 

 at such an advanced age as to be able to feed on corn, August and 

 September comes in, and it is removed by the harvest; then for the 

 remaining months of the year they are obliged to exist on insect food. 

 The partridge is certainly a very amusing and interesting bird, and 

 my journals contain many notes and records of its cunning and inge- 

 nuity. In 1840 I surprised a female on her nest, and she had laid 

 only four eggs : being aware that she was discovered, she covered 

 them very carefully over with dead hedge leaves and dried bents, un- 

 covering them every morning to deposit an additional egg, and then 

 concealing them again. So artfully were they hidden from observa- 

 tion, that an eye inexperienced in such matters could not possibly 

 have ascertained the situation of the nest, which looked precisely like 

 an unused one of a former year. February 18, 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 for a few 

 feet on 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 T 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. I was walking down a field on August 

 2nd, 1844, when I surprised a covey of young partridges: one of the 

 parent birds, in a most bold and determined way, would not quit the 

 spot for some time, and actually made an attack at my feet. Decem- 

 ber 10, 1846 : when walking along a road, 1 was not a little surprised 

 at a partridge coming over the hedge in a very hurried manner, and 

 making a swerve towards me, as if for protection ; directly afterwards, 

 and following closely in its wake, came a kestrel, very eager in pursuit ; 

 and I was much astonished at the peculiar familiarity of the partridge, 

 and also to find a kestrel attacking so large a bird : woods and hedge- 

 rows prevented my ascertaining whether the partridge fell a victim to 

 his pursuer. The partridge pairs earlier in mild seasons and later in 

 severe ones, but generally from February 1st to 14th. Some few birds 

 never pair at all, which I suppose to be males for whom there exists 

 a scarcity of females. The greatest number of eggs I ever heard of 

 being found in one nest was twenty-one; yet on August 2nd, 1844, I 

 put up from a field of wheat a covey of twenty-five young partridges, 

 which to all appearance had been hatched together, and were alike in 

 size. Little notice, however, can be taken of the number of a covey 



