Bonasa mbellus. 
1892. Mass . 
Oct. 2. _G onooxd . - At Ball' s Hill yesterday I saw where a Fox had hilled A 
a Partridge and eaten it. To-day I examined the remains care- 
fully. There was a pile of intestines and the stomach, one foot ^ 
and leg, and the terminal end of one wing with the primaries ” dryimmer ” 
I attached, besides , of course, a great heap of feathers. All these 
lay in a heap within two feet of a stone wall. Nearly above the 
spot, on the tor; of the wall, was a pile of Partridge excrement. 
This I think was where the bird had been in the habit of drum- 
ming^ for its tail feathers and large ruffs indicated clearly 
that it was an old male. There were no feathers or other re- 
mains anywhere outside of a circle of two feet or less in diam- 
eter and this confirmed me that the bird had been caught and 
killed on the spot where its feathers lay. How could the Fox 
have surprised so wary a creature? I could think of only two 
possible ways; one that he crept up behind the wall and sprang 
over it upon the bird perhaps while it was asleep; the * other, 
(and this I consider the more probable hypothesis) that he lay 
crouched on the top of the wall watching for something to come 
along and that the Partridge rambled unwittingly within reach 
perhaps m'aklng'.fornitscdrujEJiing stone of the presence and mean- 
ing of which the Pox may have been aware before he took up his 
position there. There was no undergrowth about the spot but the 
ground was covered with a deep mat of old leaves. 
