THE COMMON PARTRIDGE. 
103 
daily passage of men. and animals. The parents, 
as if knowing their safety depended on sitting close, 
remain quiet amidst all the bustle, and often hatch 
in such places. 
During incubation the male sedulously attends, 
and will generally be found near, if the female is in- 
truded upon by any of her less formidable enemies. 
When the brood is hatched, both lead about the 
young and assist them to their food ; and mild and 
timid as the partridge is generally described, in- 
stances have been seen where the love of offspring 
prevailed, and a vigorous defence was successfully 
maintained against a more powerful assailant. 
Among the many instances of such defence, men- 
tioned by various authors, we shall notice one of 
the latest, which Mr. Selby has recorded in the last 
edition of his Illustrations of British Ornithology : * 
— “ Their parental instinct, indeed, is not always 
confined to mere devices for engaging attention; 
but where there exists a probability of success, they 
will fight obstinately for the preservation of their 
young, as appears from many instances already nar- 
rated by different writers, and to which the follow- 
ing may be added, for the truth of which I can 
vouch. A person engaged in a field, not far from 
my residence, had his attention arrested by some 
objects on the ground, which, upon approaching, 
be found to be two Partridges, a male and female, 
engaged in battle with a carrion-crow; so success- 
ful, and so absorbed w’ere they in the issue of the 
♦ Yol. > p. 435. 
