G 
COMMON PARTE IDGE. 
of the marnuder could be obtained, and on proceeding to search further, I discovered that every e"® 
had already disappeared from the nest. It was a fact that in this, as in every instance where stoats 
were believed to have been the culprits, not even a single hen ever returned to lay in the same 
nest, and even the surrounding shelter in the immediate neighbourhood was entirely deserted. How 
a stoat conveys an egg is a question I should much like to see solved : the means also by which he 
breaks it and extracts the contents appears also a mystery. These eggs had in all probability been 
transported to a large heap of rotten stumps and roots of trees, stacked in a ditcli overgrown with nettles 
and brambles, about thirty or forty yards distant from the nest, as some broken shells were detected 
in the cavities among the rubbish by one of the farm-labourers, who endeavoured to find traces of where 
they had been taken. As I intended leaving the district in a day or two, there was not sufficient 
time to obtain the assistance of any one who possessed ferrets, and to make a thorougli clearance of 
the litter, in order to reach the quarters of these freebooters, which were doubtless situated in the innermost 
recesses of this large pile of decayed timber*. 
It is a curious fact that Partridges, if driven over water or towns, appear to get bewildered, and 
losing all power of flight, drop down' and suffer themselves to be picked up rather than rise again. 
There is a mistaken idea that a land-bird is unable to rise from water; I have, however, repeatedly seen 
several of the waders that have fallen wounded get up from both salt and fresh water when an attempt 
was made to effect a capture. The present species is without doubt one of the most reluctant to make 
an effort to escape, though they will oecasionally do so. The first year that the Easter Volunteer Eeview 
was held on the Downs in the neighbourhood of Brighton the wind was blowing strong from the north, 
and during the sham fight great numbers of Partridges were disturbed by the crowds of spectators and 
the noise of the firing, and becoming confused flew out to sea, where they fell into the water Several 
boats which happened to be under the cliffs profited by their misfortunes, one alone getting between 
twenty and thirty birds. Next year over a score of boats were on the spot, awaiting the 0011^0.. of the 
unfortunate Partridges ; the wind, however, was luckily from the south, and carried the affri..hted birds 
inland, not one going out to sea. Early one morning in December 1802 , I was going towards tlie 
central station at St. Leonards, when a covey of ten or a dozen Partridges caught my attention as 
they were m the act of settling m a small open square in the hack part of the town. On heim* chased 
by some boys and a few snapping small dogs, they never attempted to use their wings, but^rusliim. 
rapidly before their pursuers, sought shelter iu the open doors, or fluttered helplessly down the areas 
Telegraph-wires often cause heavy losses to Partridges ; the lines that stretch across the Rep’s Marshes 
near lleigham bridge, in the east of Norfolk, have brought down at one time or another manv birds 
o various kinds, and the present species has repeatedly been picked up near this spot. In the ’winter 
b rds Ml \r "f ’;‘"® “ Rottingdean, in Sussex, when three 
It docs not f II r ““ “fortimufe being cut off as clean as with a knife. 
It does not follow that a bird that has suffered from a broken wing and made its escape never recovers 
indicate t ha a fracture had previously taken place in the first joint of the wing of one. which by some 
means had become set, and joined again in a most satissfactory manner. 
till 11111077077 ‘0 “l«t or move about by moonlight. 
We Tr ° to make an ascent of one of th^ 
lower slopes of Cairngorm, a lull to the north of the river Lyon in Perthshire, about 3 a.m. one morning 
