n6 The Natural History of British Game Birds 
heavy the snow, there are always spaces on the moor edge where the snow is not deep 
or has been swept clear. Such spots are known to all grouse and Partridges in the 
vicinity, and on them they burrow and scrape until something palatable is found. 
In the fields Partridges fly from their roosting-places soon after daybreak, and 
occupy their feeding-ground until about 10 a.m. Here they find a great variety of 
foods. In spring, summer, and autumn they are very insectivorous, and devour quan- 
tities of flies, ants and their pupae, beetles, crane-flies, &c. They are also especially fond 
of the aphides that cluster on the under side of turnip leaves. In spring they are fond 
of the tender shoots of heather, bramble, and blueberry, but their principal food at this 
and all seasons is the young shoots and leaves of grass and clover. Partridges eat 
enormous quantities of young grass, and those kept in confinement seem never so 
happy as when tearing a tuft to pieces, pecking off every point, and even rending the 
roots asunder and dusting in the drying earth. What John Evelyn calls " those incom- 
parable sallads of young herbs" found in the crop of the Partridge, may consist of 
dozens of the succulent shoots of wild plants and the seeds of weeds noxious to the 
farmer and too numerous to mention. 
When the sun gets hot, Partridges run or fly to some . well-known knoll or sandy 
hill and indulge in a dust bath, afterwards preening their feathers and resting, and 
enjoying the warmth in various graceful attitudes. These situations are generally 
retired, but these birds are adaptive, and if no better place is at hand the dust of 
the roadside will serve the purpose. 
The Partridge is one of the first of British birds to feel the influence of early 
spring on the amatory passions — often long before the departure of frost and snow. 
Those pellucid days of late January, even when accompanied by slight frosts, contain a 
certain element of promise — it is only a promise of better conditions, but is sufficient 
to set fiery natures aglow and awake the instinct of matrimony, until now subdued by 
physical hardship, into a living force. A slight lift in the atmospheric conditions, a few 
gleams of sun, and the cock Partridges are calling, jerking their tails and standing 
about in defiant attitudes. At first they drive each other away, and select wives in a 
half-hearted fashion, doubtless feeling all the time that the mating season is not yet, 
because with the fall of temperature towards evening they are again calling each other 
to roost in one covey, as in the worst days of winter. And so advance and retreat 
towards the actual pairing season fluctuates according to the weather, season, and latitude 
throughout the days of January and February. There is no definite date for love-making 
to commence, but in normal springs Partridges are in full pairing about the ioth to the 
20th of February in the South of England, although individual pairs may be seen 
together long before these dates. During a warm day in February we may watch the 
break-up of the covey and their manoeuvres for the whole day. The male stands up by 
the side of some female which squats in the demure acquiescence of one that likes to 
be possessed and utters his pleasant "kerr-wip," now much drawn out and somewhat 
subdued in tune. One or two unattached and restless bachelors are seen running and 
calling in other parts of the field. Soon one of these approaches— sometimes very slowly, 
by means of short runs, and sometimes with flight and a headlong dash — one of the 
paired males. Then a fight ensues, in which each male flutters up for a yard or two, 
