PARTRIDGE 



2S 



the same time certain peculiar notes of alarm well understood by 

 the young, who dive separately amongst the grass, and secrete 

 themselves till the danger is over; and the parent, having decoyed 

 the pursuer to a safe distance, returns by a circuitous route to col- 

 lect and lead them off. This well known manoeuvre, which nine 

 times in ten is successful, is honorable to the feelings and judgment 

 of the bird, bvit a severe satire on man. The affectionate mother, 

 as if sensible of the avaricious cruelty of his nature, tempts him 

 with a larger prize, to save her more helpless offspring; and pays 

 him, as avarice and cruelty ought always to be paid, with mortifi- 

 cation and disappointment. 



The eggs of the Quail have been frequently placed under the 

 domestic hen, and hatched and reared with equal success as her 

 own; tho, generally speaking, the young Partridges being more 

 restless and vagrant, often lose themselves, and disappear. The 

 hen ought to be a particular good nurse, not at all disposed to 

 ramble, in which case they are very easily raised. Those that sur- 

 vive acquire all the familiarity of common chickens ; and there is 

 little doubt that if proper measures were taken, and persevered in 

 for a few years, that they might be completely domesticated. They 

 have been often kept during the first season, and through the whole 

 of the winter, but have uniformly deserted in the spring. Two 

 young partridges that were brought up by a hen, when abandoned 

 by her, associated with the cows, which they regularly followed to 

 the fields, returned with them when they came home in the even- 

 ing, stood by them while they were milked, and again accompa- 

 nied them to the pasture. These remained during the winter, 

 lodging in the stable, but as soon as spring came they disappeared. 

 Of this fact I was informed by a very respectable lady, by whom 

 they were particularly observed. 



It has been frequently asserted to me that the Quails lay oc- 

 casionally in each other's nests. Tho I have never myself seen 

 a case of this kind, I do not think it altogether improbable, from 



