ASTONISHING EXPERIENCES WITH A WILD PARTRIDGE 151 
HE GAZED INTO 
THEM IN TRULY 
LUDICROUS 
FASHION. 
Billy was always a little nervous at 
first, and it was well for a familiar per- 
son alone to handle him, but that 
within a few minutes he would be so 
self-possessed and free from fear that 
the rest of us could play with him about 
as we wished. And so it proved. We 
all picked him up, and stroked him, and 
looked into the depths of his wild, free 
eye — for it was surely the eye of a wild, 
free creature, even though he was mo- 
mentarily a captive. We all admired 
with delightful intimacy his glossy 
black ruff and the rich brown bars 
upon his plumage; and we took notice 
especially of his clean, gray feet. 
When upon the ground Billy dis- 
played a playful combativeness that 
kept us in constant laughter. He would 
pluck at our trousers with his bill, and 
peck vigorously at any hand that was 
extended toward him. Into a pair of 
field glasses that were held before his 
eyes he gazed in truly ludicrous fash- 
ion. As for taking photographs of him, 
while on the ground, with the Graflex 
camera, it was well nigh impossible. 
He wanted to “fight” the lens and, with 
arched neck, he would closely follow 
the camera, while the photographer 
vainly attempted to back away a suffi- 
cient distance to get the bird in proper 
focus. 
Our watches, our keys and pen- 
knives were all brought into use as 
playthings, and each provided fun. A 
farm-hand, returning from the field 
with his team, was hardly noticed by 
Billy, who simply stepped to one side 
to let them pass. But when Mr. Arm- 
strong’s airedale terrier came romping 
down the lane in search of his master, 
the partridge at last seemed suddenly 
to awake to his normal instincts and 
hastily disappeared into the woods. 
We did not try to call him out again, 
feeling that he had already been gen- 
erous enough in the thrills with which 
he had provided us and deserved a 
well-earned rest from our further at- 
tentions. 
Dr. Robert Cushman Murphy, for 
ten years a member of the staff of The 
Brooklyn Museum and Curator of the 
Department of Natural Science since 
April, 1917, has resigned in order to 
accept the position of Associate Cura- 
tor of Ornithology in The American 
Museum of Natural History. In his 
new work the greater part of his time 
will be devoted to a study of marine 
birds. The work will include both the 
preparation of reports upon the mu- 
seum’s present collections and the car- 
rying out of extensive field investiga- 
tions in the South Pacific. 
