Birds. 



5983 



in some parts of Ireland), was said to be distinguished partly by this 

 circumstance, and partly by its less size and darker plumage as com- 

 pared with the common bird. Here, I am certain, with every oppor- 

 tunity and inducement of locality, of all the hundreds of partridges 

 which frequent the moor at times, not one in a hundred is bred on the 

 moor, and not one at all inhabits the moor to the exclusion of the low- 

 lands. Hatched and nurtured in the corn-fields, though they may, in 

 the case of a covey or two here and there, take to the moor for days, 

 or possibly weeks together in such a mild season as the past has been, 

 yet in snow and frost they return to the fields, and when paired are to 

 be met with, as the rule, in the fields and not on the moor. Then as 

 to size and plumage : he must be a most unobservant person who does 

 not note the difierences in size and shade perceptible between indivi- 

 duals of almost every species of birds, according to sex, age and 

 other circumstances. In the grouse, for instance, they are most con- 

 spicuous ; and one day last week I shot two snipes in succession from 

 the same wet place : one was a fine bird, above the average in weight ; 

 the other so small I could scarcely believe it was not a jack as I 

 stooped to pick it up. Again, I noticed one partridge in a particular 

 covey, on two several days, so perceptibly darker than the rest that 

 but for flight, &c., I might have been pardoned for taking it, for a 

 moment or two, for a grouse. But to return to size : I met a farmer 

 one day late in the season ; he said to me, ^' I told you there was a 

 covey of thirteen very small birds, scarcely able to fly, when you were 

 over my farm in September ; I have seen them often since, in such 

 and such fields." A week or two after — I believe about the 19th of 

 December — I was over his fields again, and killed a bird out of a good 

 covey. On picking it up I was struck by its lightness and smallness ; 

 it was, however, very plump and in full plumage. I followed the 

 covey, and succeeded in bagging three more from it, one of which 

 was an old bird. All of the three young ones were alike in size and 

 weight, and certainly less than the old one by one-third. On a sub- 

 sequent occasion I shot most of the others; and the rule held through- 

 out. Most of these small birds, moreover, appeared darker in colour 

 than the usual run of partridges. But the difference in size certainly 

 could be accounted for in only one way, viz., the very late period at 

 which they had been hatched ; and I have observed the same result 

 of late hatching on a former occasion, nor is it difficult to be ac- 

 counted for. 



As to the alleged suppression or retention of scent, I think the 



