THE COMMON PARTRIDGE. 
75 
aa t!ie partridge i« generally described^ Infitances 
havp been spetj where the lave of ofr?([>nug prt'vailetJj 
aiuJ a vii^arous defence was siicfeiisfiillv maintained 
a^inst a more pDweiful assadarit. Atnouf^ lite many 
instances of aucli defence mentioned by various 
autfmrH, we shati notice one of tbe lateat which 
Mr Selhy has recorded in tho la«it ptliiion of his 
History of British Ornithnloji^y * ; — Their parental 
instinct, indeed, is not always confined to nripre de- 
vicPH for en^rajjinflf attention ; but where there ex- 
Uts a prohahiiity of puccpm!*, they will fiiilit obsti- 
nately for ibe preservation of thtdr younL% aa appears 
from many instances already narrated by iliflFerent 
writers, and to which tliR following may be atkied, 
for the truth of which I can vouch, A person en- 
gaged in a field, not far from my residence, hud hia 
attention arrested by some objects on the ground, 
wliich, upon approacliin^* he found to be two par- 
tridiji'fl, a male and fen*ale, eiigajj;ed in battle with a 
carrion-crow ; so sucressfid and so absorbed were 
they in the issue of the contest, that they actualiy 
held the crow, till it was seized, and taken from 
them by the spectator of the scene. Upon search, 
tlie younj,' birds (very lately hatcbeil) were found con- 
cealed amongst the grass. It woidti appear, there- 
fore, that the crow» a mortal enemy to all hinds of 
young game, in fflttenipiiii«' to carry off one of iliesc, 
had been attacked by the parent birds, ajid with the 
above uingtilar succesa." Such displays are, how- 
VoU i. p. 435. 
