The Common Partridge 115 
in large numbers, the survivors migrating to the nearest grass land which has water in its 
proximity. It will almost invariably be found that in a very dry season birds bred on grass 
land do exceptionally well." 
No game bird is so unmigratory in its habits as the English Partridge. Occa- 
sionally we hear of coveys dropping into the streets of Eastbourne and Brighton, 
but these are in all probability local coveys, which by repeated disturbance have lost 
both their heads and their way at the same time, and have not come from afar. They 
have not, so far as I am aware, been taken at sea on board vessels, nor have they 
been seen to fly over wide stretches of water. On the Continent, however, where they 
are exposed, as willow and black grouse are, to greater degrees of heat and cold with 
its proportionate increase or decrease of the food supply, Partridges are semi-migratory 
and move with a certain degree of freedom, except when stopped by great rivers and 
mountain ranges. That the Partridge will cross a mile or two of water is instanced 
by the late Rev. H. A. Macpherson, who says 1 that they regularly traverse the Solway 
Firth, from the slopes of the Dumfriesshire hills to the well-cultivated areas of the 
Cumbrian plain. This, however, we must take as an exception. 
I can, however, cite another instance. Every year a few broods of hill Partridges 
are reared up in the Perthshire mountains about Dalwhinnie. These invariably return 
to the lower straths at the commencement of winter. 
By nature the Partridge is monogamous and gregarious. Each pair of birds live 
with their progeny in the open fields until the nesting season, when fighting and a 
break-up of the covey takes place. They feed in the early morning and late hours of 
the afternoon on the grass and clover fields, and even during the day, when they rest 
under hedgerows or in open marsh or grass fields, they pick about leisurely at the 
grass tufts, or sun and bask amongst the whins or sandy banks, spending much time 
in dusting and arranging their plumage. At night they "Jug" together closely in 
some grassy meadow, the heads all inclining inwards to some central point. Partridges 
are most at home on land that is light, rich, and highly farmed, but a model farm is 
scarcely to their liking, for there should be some rough unkempt fields in the vicinity, 
where Nature has it all her own way. These birds have a marked partiality for rough 
moorlands bordering on tillage, and in such places the best of shooting can be obtained, 
for coveys will scatter and lie well in the borderlands where they were bred. These 
moor Partridges are wilder, smaller, and better for the table than "field" birds, and 
obtain most of their food in their natural home. In Surrey, Staffordshire, Yorkshire, 
and Northumberland there are many of these moor Partridges, and in Ireland and in 
Scotland are numbers which never go to fields at all at any season. The moorland 
Partridges are hardy birds, and seem to be quite as capable of withstanding the winter 
blasts as the grouse, provided there is an abundance of grass, fruit, and rush seeds to 
satisfy their wants. Many species of birds which have been introduced into cold 
climates and are considered delicate are not so in reality, but are capable of bearing 
very low temperature, provided the right sort of food can be found. 2 No matter how 
1 The Parlridgi. 
- A good instance of this occurred in 1908 when a rifle bird, one of the birds of Paradise, escaped from confinement 
in Sussex during the autumn. On recapture a month later it was found to be in better condition than when it escaped. 
