Birds. 



5981 



lie till yon are in the midst of them ; the next, rise from the same 

 covert as soon as you are seen entering the field. No doubt there is 

 a reason for this variability, but I cannot suggest one that is at all sa- 

 tisfactory to myself. 



They seem to resort to their feeding- ground at daybreak, and they 

 remain there until about 9 to 10 o'clock. They then, with some 

 calling, betake themselves to the turnip-field, or the bank, or some 

 pasture, especially if it have a dry sunny bank in it, or possibly to a 

 bed of rushes, if there be one in any field near. Here they remain 

 till about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, when they begin to move, often 

 on foot, and calling a good deal. Sometimes their journey on foot is 

 so far continued that they have but a short flight to make to their 

 feeding-ground, — little more, possibly, than over a fence, and a few- 

 yards into the field selected. They seem to be very playful when on 

 the move, either to or from their food, and wilh no suspicion of pos- 

 sible danger: little sparrings and rivalries as to which shall be fore- 

 most in the walk n)ay be observed by the well-placed spectator, and 

 all accompanied with a low continued sort of clucking, which cannot 

 be heard very far by human ears. I have very commonly observed 

 the use of this species of call by a wounded bird. Occasionally the 

 louder well-known call is used ; but this clucking is very common. 

 Twice in the past season I. winged a bird with each barrel: in both 

 cases the birds, though falling far apart, had drawn together; and in 

 one of the cases, the birds having fallen 50 or 60 yards apart, I heard 

 this calling quite distinctly, and eventually, after charging, found both 

 close together. I have also occasionally seen them, quite contrary to 

 their usual habits when driven to covert, manifest great restlessness, 

 first one and then another, and then perhaps two or three rising, quite 

 undisturbed by any near approach of dog or man, taking very short 

 flights and then dropping again. Once I noticed this when some fif- 

 teen brace of birds w'ere scattered on the bank, and the whole space 

 seemed alive with them, from their restless and incessant motions, ac- 

 companied as it all was by continual callings. I have seen, but 

 rarely, a single bird, from among what was proved in a few moments 

 to be a considerable covey, rise above the covert, and drop again as 

 suddenly as it rose, and in the same place. It is no unusual thing 

 for a bird, or more, leaving the bulk of the covey, to rise and go quite 

 away. When this occurs, it may often be accounted for on the ground 

 of the absence of that particular bird on whose movements and signals 

 the covey depends for the regulation of its general conduct. In the 

 former case, whenever 1 have remarked it, the covey had not been 



