PARTRIDGES. 
105 
eight young ones were produced; and the cock, who 
was now in some measure the parent of this numer- 
ous offspring, appeared a good deal perplexed, when 
he saw so many little animals pecking around him, 
and requiring his constant vigilance ; they were 
therefore removed, from a fear that he might tread 
upon or neglect them. 
Generally speaking, the Partridge is a much shyer 
bird than the Pheasant, and though we have found 
it, in the above case, quitting its own species to 
live with another, it can seldom be induced to lay 
aside its natural habits and become quite tame. 
Occasionally, however, by great care, they have been 
known to attach themselves to man. 
In a clergymans family, one was reared, which 
became so familiar that it would attend the parlour 
at breakfast, and other times, and would afterwards 
stretch itself before the fire, seeming to enjoy the 
warmth, as if it were in its natural bask on a sunny 
bank. The dogs of the house never molested it, 
but, unfortunately, it one day fell under the paws of 
a strange cat, and was killed. 
The Partridge, as is well known, usually builds in 
corn-fields, where, undisturbed amidst a forest of tall 
wheat-stems, it rears its brood. Like other birds, it 
sometimes, however, chooses a very different sort of 
nursery, as, for instance, a hay- stack, on the top of 
which a nest was once formed, the covey hatched, 
and safely carried off. 
In England we have but one sort, but in France, 
and other parts of Europe, they have beautiful varie- 
ties, — the red-legged, Barbary Partridges, &c. ; and 
in America, there are, again, other sorts, peculiar to 
