PARTRIDGE. 
41 
throws herself in the path, fluttering along, and beating the 
ground with her wings, as if sorely wounded, using every arti- 
fice she is master of, to entice the passenger in pursuit of herself, 
uttering at the same time certain peculiar notes of alarm, well 
understood by the young, who dive separately amongst the 
grass, and secrete themselves till the danger is over; and the 
parent, having decoyed the pursuer to a safe distance, returns, 
by a circuitous route, to collect and lead them oflT. This well 
known manoeuvre, which nine times in ten is successful, is 
honourable to tbe feelings and judgment of the bird, but a 
severe satire on man. The affectionate mother, as if sensible of 
the avaricious cruelty of his nature, tempts him with a larger 
prize, to save her more helpless offspring; and pays him, as 
avarice and cruelty ought always to be paid, with mortification 
and disappointment. 
The eggs of the Quail have been frequently placed under the 
domestic hen, and hatched and reared with equal success as her 
own; though, generally speaking, the young Partridges being 
more restless and vagrant, often lose themselves, and disap- 
pear. The hen ought to be a particularly good nurse, not at all 
disposed to ramble, in which case they are very easily raised. 
Those that survive, acquire all the familiarity of common 
chickens; and there is little doubt that if proper measures were 
taken, and persevered in for a few years, that they might be 
completely domesticated. They have been often kept during 
the first season, and through the whole of the winter, but have 
uniformly deserted in the spring. Two young Partridges that 
were brought up by a hen, when abandoned by her, associated 
with the cows, which they regularly followed to the fields, re- 
turned with them when they came home in the evening, stood 
by them while they were milked, and again accompanied them 
to the pasture. These remained during the winter, lodging in 
the stable, but as soon as spring came they disappeared. Of 
this fact I was informed by a very respectable lady, by whom 
they were particularly observed. 
It has been frequently asserted to me, that the Quails lay oc- 
VOL. III. — G 
